tihvary  of  t:he  theological  ^tminaty 

PRINCETON  •  NEW  JERSEY 


•a^D* 


BX  9869  .C4  B8 

Brooks,  Charles  Timothy, 

1813-1883. 
William  Ellery  Channing 


W^-:^K. 


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WILLIAM    ELLERY    CHANNING. 


William  Ellery  Channing:    '^ 


>. 


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a  Centennial  iWemorp. 


BY 


CHARLES  T.  BROOKS. 


WITH    ILLUSTRATIONS. 


BOSTON: 
ROBERTS     BROTHERS. 

1880. 


Copyright,  1880, 
By  Roberts  Brothers. 


University  Press: 
John  Wilson  and  Son,  Cambridge. 


The  path  of  the  just  is  as  the  dawning  lights  that 
shineth  more  and  more  unto  the  perfect  day. 

Great  peace  hat/e  they  that  love  Thy  laiv^  and  nothing 
shall  offend  them. 

Thou  shall  keep  them  secretly  in  a  pavilion  from  the 
strife  of  tongues. 

Behold  the  upright,  for  the  end  of  that  man  is  peace. 


I 


PREFACE. 


HAVE  tried  to  write  this  little  book  in 
the  spirit  of  simplicity,  truthfulness, 
and  even-handed  justice  which  so  strik- 
ingly characterized  its  illustrious  subject. 

The  want  of  a  popular  life  of  Channing 
in  one  handy  volume  has  long  been  felt, 
and  oftener  expressed,  by  those,  not  only 
in  his  own  but  in  other  denominations, 
who  have  known  the  man  only  or  chiefly 
through  his  writings.  As  one  contribution 
toward  the  supply  of  that  want,  this  com- 
pend  is  offered  to  the  public. 

Although  so  short  and  succinct  an  ac- 
count of  so  full  and  rich  a  life  may  well 
seem,  and  must  needs  be,  in  some  respects 
a  meagre  outline,  still  this  small  volume 
professes  not  to  be  a  mere  dry  summary, 


8  PREFACE. 

for  it  aims  to  let  the  reader,  so  far  as  possi- 
ble, see  and  hear  the  man  himself,  as  he  is 
imaged  in  his  own  words,  especially  in  sig- 
nificant passages  from  his  familiar  corre- 
spondence. 

Some  reminiscences  of  Channing  will 
be  found  in  these  pages  which  have  not 
appeared  elsewhere.  The  whole  account 
of  his  relation  to  the  Unitarian  Church  in 
Newport  will,  in  particular,  be  new,  and  it 
is  hoped,  interesting  to  most  readers.  One 
other  feature  of  this  book,  which,  perhaps, 
will  not  be  unacceptable,  is  its  bringing 
together  some  of  the  significant  expres- 
sions and  echoes  from  different  denomina- 
tions and  foreign  nations  of  Channing's 
world-wide  influence. 

The  following  account  of  Dr.  Chan- 
ning's life  and  writings  makes  no  pre- 
tension (it  need  hardly  be  said)  to  any 
philosophic  novelty,  to  giving  any  new 
estimate  of  his  position,  services,  or  char- 
acter. Of  course  most  of  the  external 
facts    herein    related    will    be   found    scat- 


PREFACE, 


9 


tered  through  the  pages  of  William  Henry 
Channing's  three  rich  and  eloquent  bio- 
graphical volumes.  These  have  thus  far 
been  the  source  from  which  all  brief  bi- 
ographies of  their  subject  have  drawn 
almost  all  their  material.  Indeed  they  are 
a  precious  mine  of  spiritual  gems,  —  a  field 
and  sky  of  large  and  lofty  thought  and 
kindling  sentiment  which  it  would  be  hard 
to  match  in  the  whole  range  of  religious 
literature.  But  to  the  student  of  Dr. 
Channing's  life  the  work  has  this  inconven- 
ience, that  the  unfortunate  plan  the  author 
has  perhaps  almost  necessarily  adopted,  of 
crowding  his  pages  with  extracts  from  ser- 
mons and  letters,  arranged  according  to 
subjects  instead  of  chronological  order, 
prevents  the  reader  from  getting  (what  is 
so  very  important  a  business  of  the  biog- 
rapher to  furnish  or  to  further)  a  view  of 
the  gradual  growth  of  the  man's  mind  and 
the  formation  of  his  opinions. 

Mr.  Channing  mtimates  that  he  has  left 
unused   many   more   of   those   documents 


10  PREFACE. 

illustrative  of  his  uncle's  inner  and  out- 
ward life,  which  he  has  so  largely  drawn 
from  in  his  Memoir.  While  grateful  for 
what  has  been  printed  from  those  private 
papers,  of  meditations,  confessions,  and 
studies,  we  only  wish  we  might  some  day 
have  the  whole  of  what  would  surely  prove 
such  bright  and  honorable  illustrations  of 
a  spirit  yearning  for  perfection. 

It  is  earnestly  to  be  hoped  that  the 
world  may  one  day  have  a  chronologically 
arranged  collection  of  Dr.  Channing's  or- 
dinary sermons  of  the  earlier  periods  of  his 
ministry.  Or,  if  that  is  no  longer  possible, 
may  we  not  hope,  at  least,  to  see  a  com- 
plete and  chronological  arrangement  of  his 
familiar  correspondence  ?  For  one  of  the 
most  instructive  and  inspiring  traits  of  his 
history  is  the  mingled  freedom  and  rever- 
ence with  which  he  "  followed  after  "  truth. 
Well  might  he  too  have  adopted  those 
words  of  Sir  William  Jones,  so  touchingly 
appropriated  by  another  and  still  living 
venerable  teacher  of   our  liberal  faith,  in 


PREFACE.  II 

the  preface  to  his   Divinity  School    Lec- 
tures :  — 

"  Before  thy  mystic  altar,  heavenly  Truth, 
I  kneel  in  manhood,  as  I  knelt  in  youth  ; 
So  let  me  kneel,  till  this  dull  frame  decay. 
And  life's  last  shade  be  brightened  by  thy  ray." 

That  the  prayer  of  this  last  line  may  be 
fulfilled  to  the  beloved  and  revered  sur- 
vivor of  the  generation  of  Channing  and 
Ware  and  Norton  is  the  fervent  wish  of 
the  grateful  pupil  who  dedicates  to  him 
this  book. 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 


Thoughts  at  the  C?losing  of  the  Centenary. — 
A  hundred  years  have  gone  —  say,  rather,  have 
come,  with  their  vast  accessions  of  hght  and 
quickening  —  since  that  life  began  on  earth  of 
which  it  is  the  purpose  of  these  pages  to  repeat 
the  leading  facts,  and  emphasize  some  of  the 
principal  lessons.  It  may  well  be  questioned 
whether  these  hundred  years  —  or,  indeed,  any 
hundred  years  since  the  Master  left  the  earth  — 
have  bequeathed  to  the  world  a  more  pure  and 
perfect  example  of  the  combination  of  qualities 
that  entitles  its  possessor  to  be  called  *'  a  man 
of  the  Beatitudes." 

Difficxilty   of  the  Biographer's   Task.  —  But  the 

clearness  and  completeness  of  a  character  by  no 


14  WILLIAM  ELLERY   CHANNING. 

means  make  it  the  easier  to  portray.  There 
are  two  different  kinds  of  men  that,  for  opposite 
reasons,  are  continually  tempting  age  after  age 
to  do  its  best  to  analyze  and  characterize 
them:  the  one  is  the  class  to  which  such  men 
as  Cromwell  belong,  eluding  our  grasp  by  a 
certain  obscurity  of  life  or  language ;  the  other 
includes  men  like  Washington,  the  very  round- 
ness and  transparency  of  whose  being  make 
them  the  despair  of  the  biographical  portrait- 
painter,  who  would  avoid  common-place,  and 
do  justice  to  the  individuaHty  of  his  subject. 

Channing  an  Inspiring  Theme.  —  In  this  latter 
class  we  place  Channing.  His  is  one  of  those 
natures  which  it  is  easier  to  discern  than  to 
describe.  And  it  is  one  which  discloses  new 
beauty  and  value  as  it  is  approached  from  new 
directions.  Channing,  like  his  great  Master,  is 
a  "■  prophet  of  the  soul,"  whose  word  has  had 
new  meanings  and  applications  for  each  new 
generation,  and  will  have  for  generations  to 
come. 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  15 

And  hence  it  is  that  this  closing  year  of  the 
century  since  his  birth  has  aheady  stirred  up  so 
many  minds,  not  only  within  but  without  the 
pale  of  his  own  denomination,  to  try  to  express 
their  idea  and  impression  of  his  genius,  his 
work,  and  his  worth ;  and  the  approaching  cen- 
tenary will  awaken  in  many  more  hearts,  espe- 
cially of  such  as  have  personally  known  this 
wise  and  saintly  man,  an  earnest  desire  to  ex- 
press their  grateful  and  reverent  sense  of  his 
rare  service  to  truth  and  humanity,  and  add 
their  offerings  of  love  and  veneration  to  the 
wreath  which  a  generation  has  been  intwining 
around  his  memory. 

The  fast-dwindling  number  whose  privilege  it 
was  to  enjoy  the  personal  acquaintance  of  this 
heavenly-minded  man  will  naturally  yearn  to 
transmit  to  the  coming  generation  something  of 
the  impression  left  upon  them  by  the  look  and 
voice  which  make  the  printed  pages  to  them  a 
mirror  not  only  of  the  spiritual  form,  but  of 
the  remembered  face  of  him  who,  while  it  was 
only  a  written  page,  bent  thoughtfully  over  it. 


l6  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

Discouragement  and  Encouragement  in  attempt- 
ing a  Fresh  Biography.  —  It  is  with  a  mingled 
feeling  of  satisfaction  and  misgiving  that  the 
present  writer  has  let  himself  be  persuaded  to 
set  his  hand  to  the  work  of  putting  into  the 
shape  of  a  biographic  sketch  his  knowledge, 
thoughts,  and  reminiscences  of  a  master  so  be- 
loved and  revered. 

On  the  one  hand,  to  have  lived  more  than 
half  one's  life  in  the  place  of  Channing's  birth ; 
to  have  walked  for  forty  years  the  streets  with 
which  his  youthful  steps  were  familiar,  and  daily 
looked  upon  the  house  in  which  he  first  saw  the 
light;  to  have  roamed  the  shores  along  which 
he  so  loved  to  wander;  to  have  stood  for  more 
than  a  generation  in  the  pulpit  he  dedicated; 
to  have  seen  and  heard,  during  the  last  five 
years  of  his  life,  the  prophet  in  his  own  home 
and  country;  and  to  have  dwelt  ever  since 
amidst  scenes  made  even  more  lovely  by  the 
lingering  hght  of  his  remembered  countenance, 
—  all  this  experience  may  well  seem  to  make 
it  not   only  one's    right,    but  duty,  to  add  his 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 


17 


testimony  to  the  already  vast  accumulation 
of  tributes  which  this  centennial  hour  will 
crown. 

And  yet  when  one  thinks  how  many  elo- 
quent, just,  and  worthy  tributes  to  Channing's 
memory;  how  many  luminous  expositions  of 
the  spirit  and  significance  of  his  life,  from  so 
many  different  points  of  view  and  in  both 
hemispheres,  have  already,  since  his  transla- 
tion, been  given  to  the  world ;  and  how  thor- 
oughly and  transparently  he  has  painted  in 
his  writings  his  own  spiritual  likeness,  —  all 
this  may  well  make  the  most  enthusiastic  disci- 
ple hesitate  to  add  another  word  to  the  many 
that  have  been  so  well  and  worthily  spoken  on 
the  fruitful  theme. 

Nevertheless  it  is  an  encouragement,  again, 
to  the  most  diffident  disciple,  in  contributing  his 
mite  in  this  case,  to  observe  how  even  one  acute 
and  enlarged  mind  after  another  still  labors,  at 
this  advanced  day,  to  effect,  by  a  renewed  esti- 
mate, a  more  complete  appreciation  of  Chan- 
ning's  work,  not  only  in  its  relation  to  the 
2 


1 8  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

period  in  which  he  lived,  but  in  its  bearing 
upon  some  of  the  most  serious  problems  of  the 
present  day  and  hour. 

Channing's  Autobiography,  —  Channing,  we 
have  said,  has  in  a  sense  written  his  own  life. 
This  is  eminently  true  of  him,  as  it  is  of  many 
another  great  man,  of  Wordsworth  for  example. 
His  works  (well  may  such  writings  be  so  named) 
are  his  life's  work.  And  if  we  could  have  all 
his  writings  in  our  hands,  in  chronological  order, 
—  sermons,  essays,  letters,  journals,  —  and  //*we 
would  read,  study,  and  inwardly  digest  all  this 
material,  then  we  should  be  very  near  to  having 
a  full  picture  of  the  life  of  the  man;  I  say, 
very  near,  for  there  would  still  be  needed,  to 
complete  it,  one  thing  if  not  two  things,  more : 
first,  a  record  of  his  conversation,  his  private 
walk  and  talk;  and  secondly,  —  a  very  impor- 
tant part,  in  one  sense,  of  a  man's  real  life,  — 
a  gathering  up  of  the  reproductions  of  himself 
in  the  souls  with  which  he  has  had  personal 
communion. 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  19 

At  all  events,  if  a  man's  life  includes  that 
which  he  lives  on  earth  after  he  has  left  it  (and 
it  is  hard  to  avoid  making  it  do  so),  then,  cer- 
tainly, it  ought  not  to  seem  strange  that  some 
men's  biographies  should  be  many  times  rewrit- 
ten, and  that  we  should  be  in  the  way  to  get 
repeated  accessions  to  our  perfect  understand- 
ing of  them,  by  looking  at  them  in  the  mirrors 
of  different  minds. 

What  it  is  to  write  a  Life.  —  Properly  to  write 
the  life  of  any  man  is  a  twofold  task.  It  is  not 
only  to  tell  the  story  of  what  he  was  and  did, 
enjoyed  and  suffered,  in  the  outer  world,  but  to 
trace,  so  far  as  it  can  be  gathered  from  his 
words  and  deeds,  and  his  whole  *'  conversation 
in  the  world,"  the  history  of  the  inner  man. 
This  is  eminently  true  if  the  subject  of  the  biog- 
raphy was  a  man  of  thought,  and  his  life  was 
a  life  of  study ;  and  pre-eminently  is  it  so  when 
we  have  to  do  with  one  of  those  spiritual  and 
saintly  men  whose  life  was  "  hid  with  Christ  in 
God,"  whose  "  conversation  "  was  "  in  heaven  " 


20  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

even  while  they  walked  on  the  earth.  And  in  this 
last  case  the  very  transparency  of  the  character 
may  make  it  all  the  harder  to  describe,  individ- 
ualize, and  differentiate;  what  we  feel  ever  so 
strongly  and  distinctly,  we  may  find  it  almost 
impossible  to  express  even  to  our  own  satisfac- 
tion. Moreover,  it  is  one  thing  to  tell  what  a 
man  was,  and  another  thing  to  trace  out  how 
he  came  to  be  what  he  was ;  in  other  words,  to 
tell  how  in  his  person  the  universal  became 
individual. 

In  Channing's  Case,  a  threefold  Task.  —  All  this 
is  strikingly  verified  in  the  case  of  a  man  like 
Dr.  Channing,  who  was  at  once  so  universal 
and  so  individual,  so  profound.and  so  simple,  so 
clear  and  so  full,  with  a  self  so  marked  and 
peculiar,  and  at  the  same  time  so  large  and 
comprehensive.  Every  new  attempt  from  year 
to  year  to  set  forth  the  meaning  and  merit  of 
his  word  and  work  adds  a  new  illustration  both 
of  the  attractiveness  of  the  theme  and  of  the 
difficulty  of  the  task. 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  21 

But  indeed,  in  one  sense,  what  we  have  called 
a  twofold  task  might  in  a  case  like  this  be  said 
to  be  threefold.  For  the  Hfe  of  a  Channing 
ends  not,  even  on  earth,  with  his  departure  from 
this  world.  And  whoso  would  write  his  life  has 
to  follow  and  keep  up  with  a  presence  and  an 
influence  still  living  and  growing  in  the  world  of 
thought,  in  human  souls  and  society. 

Channing's  Earthly  Immortality. — It  is  one  mark 
of  a  great  soul  that,  like  the  heavenly  luminaries 
which  keep  along  with  the  traveller  in  his  nightly 
journeying,  it  moves  on  abreast  and  even  ahead 
of  the  advancing  generations,  an  ever-present 
incitement  and  guidance.  Even  so  the  pure 
flame  of  Channing's  spirit  still  accompanies  us, 
as  the  years  roll  on,  —  an  angehc  presence  with 
quickening  and  regulating  power,  a  burning 
and  a  shining  light. 

Channing's  Life  speaks  Cheer  to  Young  and  Old. 
—  In  undertaking  to  tell  over  again  the  story 
of  Dr.  Channing's  life,  a  special  object  has  been 


22  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

to  make  a  book  that  should  interest  and  instruct 
the  young  people,  but  not  them  alone.  Both 
to  young  and  old  that  life  is  full  of  invaluable 
lessons,  —  to  the  young  as  illustrating  a  boy- 
hood and  youth  lovely  and  truly  venerable ;  to 
the  elders  as  a  rare  example  of  one  who  grew 
younger  as  he  grew  older,  — ''  always  young  for 
liberty,"  as  he  once  said  in  manhood;  always 
young  for  Nature,  as  he  often  said,  and  was 
constantly  showing  without  saying  it,  in  the  very 
latest  years  of  life,  when  he  looked  on  the  face 
of  the  great  Mother  and  leaned  on  her  bosom 
with  a  childlike  devotion;  always  young  for 
Truth,  and  in  her  service  nobly  verifying  those 
words  of  the  Prophet :  "  The  youths  shall  faint 
and  be  weary,  and  the  young  men  shall  utterly 
fail;  but  they  that  wait  upon  the  Lord  shall 
renew  their  strength ;  they  shall  mount  up  with 
wings  as  eagles;  they  shall  run  and  not  be 
weary,  and  they  shall  walk  and  not  faint."  How 
wonderfully  does  this  unquenchable  ardor  of 
aspiration  after  truth  and  perfectness  shine  out 
in  the  copious  correspondence   that  so  largely 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  23 

occupied  the  last  decade  of  his  outwardly  failing 
but  inwardly  brightening  and  broadening  life ! 
The  life  of  Channing  is  eminently  fitted  to  edify 
the  young  in  manly  virtue  by  its  winning  ex- 
hibition of  the  harmony  of  true  manliness  and 
true  godhness,  and  it  is  equally  fitted  to  help 
the  old  renew  their  youth  at  the  fountain  of 
inspiration  which  for  ever  springs  up  for  them 
who  dwell  in  the  mount  of  faith. 

Channing's  Life  not  merely  a  past  Subject. — 
Channing  has  long  since  gone  up  from  that 
mount  of  faith  into  the  heaven  of  the  open 
vision,  and  one  who  sits  down  to  recall  and 
record  the  impression  of  what  he  was  in  the 
days  of  his  earthly  pilgrimage,  can  hardly  write 
of  the  life  he  then  lived  without  seeing  it  trans- 
figured through  the  glow  of  the  large  and  lofty 
life  to  which  he  has  ascended ;  and,  while  look- 
ing out  upon  the  beauteous  Hght  and  landscape 
from  which  he  drew  so  much  inspiration,  can 
hardly  feel  it  an  exaggeration  to  say,  — 


24  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

*'  He  is  made  one  with  Nature  ;  there  is  heard 
His  voice  in  all  her  music  .  .  . 
He  is  a  presence  to  be  felt  and  known, 
Spreading  itself  where'er  that  Power  may  move 
Which  has  withdrawn  his  being  to  its  own ; 
Which  wields  the  world  with  never-wearied  love, 
Sustains  it  from  beneath  and  kindles  it  above." 

"  He  is  a  portion  of  the  loveliness 
Which  once  he  made  more  lovely." 

In  a  word,  when  we  speak  of  the  life  of  such 
a  man,  —  a  true  man  of  God,  one  eminently  full 
of  the  Spirit,  —  we  cannot  feel  that  we  are 
speaking  merely  of  a  thing  of  the  past.  Well 
has  it  been  said  of  this  man :  ^  "  Several  lives 
are  given  to  him."  Indeed,  besides  the  eternal 
life  in  heaven  on  which  we  feel  that  he  has 
entered,  he  lives  here  on  earth  a  continued  life 
in  every  heart  which  his  word  has  quickened. 
And  no  one  can  truly  write  his  life  except  so 
far  as  that  life  is  written  and  reproduced  by  the 
Spirit  (the  source  of  all  life)  in  his  own  heart. 

And  so  we  are  tempted,  "  forgetting  the 
things   which   are   behind,"  to   go  on  and  on, 

1  In  Dr.  Hall's  eulogy,  referring  to  an  expression  once 
used  by  Dr.  Channing,  "that  he  needed  several  lives  to  do 
what  he  felt  he  had  to  do." 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  C MANNING.  25 

meditating  the  continued  and  growing  life  of 
Channing  in  the  progress  of  the  truths,  the 
principles,  the  spirit  he  was  seeking  to  write 
out  and  work  out,  more  and  more  fervently,  as 
he  approached  the  close  of  his  earthly  exist- 
ence; and  even  the  hundredth  anniversary  of 
his  birth  into  this  world  sends  our  thoughts 
upward  and  onward  to  that  second  and  higher 
birth  of  his  spirit  into  the  heavenly  state  of  a 
still  more  exalted  and  enlarged  work  for  God 
and  humanity.  Still,  it  is  profoundly  true  that 
the  actions  and  events  of  the  past  had  in  them 
a  living  soul,  by  which  they  still  live  and  are 
ever  renewing  their  life  in  the  memory  of  men ; 
and  so,  even  at  this  distance  of  time,  as  the 
days  which  are  said  —  by  an  almost  impossible 
figure  —  to  have  "  joined  the  past  eternity  "  move 
along  with  us  in  our  pilgrimage,  it  is  a  good 
thing  for  us  to  recur  to  the  train  of  events, 
external  and  internal,  by  which  the  soul  of 
Channing  was  educated  to  that  holy  ministry 
which  it  still  exercises  in  the  minds  and  hearts 
of  men,  —  that   living  picture,  which,  however 


26  WILLIAM  ELLERY  C MANNING. 

familiar,  will  be  always  fresh  and  beautiful  to 
those  certainly  who  love  to  contemplate  "the 
life  of  God  in  the  soul  of  man." 

The  purpose  and  plan  of  this  little  book  is,  first, 
to  trace  the  principal  steps  and  stages  of  Chan- 
ning's  outward  and  inward  life  by  the  help  of 
pubHc  record  and  personal  reminiscence,  and 
after  that  to  present  some  reflections  on  the 
meaning  that  life  has  for  us  to-day,  some  of  the 
great  lessons  it  utters  to  the  present  and  coming 
generations. 

Channing  fortunate  in  his  Birthplace.  —  William 
Ellery  Channing  was  born  at  Newport,  in  (and 
on)  Rhode  Island,  the  7th  of  April,  1780. 
We  pause  here  to  note  that  this  very  first  cir- 
cumstance of  his  earthly  life,  the  place  of  his 
nativity,  has  a  providential  significance.  We 
are  sometimes  told,  when  we  make  account  of 
a  great  man's  place  of 'birth,  he  happened  to  be 
born  there.  But  the  dweller  on  Rhode  Island, 
as  he  remembers  Channing,  may  be  pardoned 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  27 

if,  at  the  same  time,  he  calls  to  mind  those 
words  of  the  Psalmist:  *' Of  Zion  it  shall  be 
said.  This  and  that  man  was  born  in  her:  .  .  . 
The  Lord  shall  count,  when  he  writeth  up  the 
people,  that  this  man  was  born  there."  What 
some  might  lightly  call  the  accident  of  Chan- 
ning's  having  been  born  on  a  certain  beautiful 
spot,  a  thoughtful  soul,  weaned  from  the  idol- 
atry of  chance,  will  recognize  as  the  appoint- 
ment of  Divine  Providence.  And  surely,  if 
Channing  himself  repeatedly,  both  in  private 
and  in  public,  thanked  God  that  this  beatitiftd 
island  was  the  place  of  his  birth  ;  if  he  himself 
said,  "  I  must  bless  God  for  the  place  of  my 
nativity,"  and,  in  so  saying,  confessed  not 
merely  his  joy  in  nature,  but  the  spiritual  edi- 
fication and  education  he  had  received  there,  as 
when  he  expressly  and  emphatically  declares, 
"  No  spot  on  earth  has  helped  to  form  me  so 
much  as  that  beach;  "  and  when  he  again  and 
again,  in  after  years,  thankfully  acknowledges 
the  influence  of  his  seaside  meditations  and 
communings  in  breathing  through  his  soul  the 


28:  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

spirit  of  liberty  and  liberality,  —  is  it  not  natural 
that  we,  too,  should  feel  a  certain  enthusiasm  in 
associating  with  his  name  the  region  he  so  fer- 
vently and  fondly  commemorates?  as  the  writer 
of  this  book  was  moved  to  do  on  the  Hundredth 
Anniversary  of  the  Redwood  Library  in  the 
following  lines :  — 

Hail,  island-home  of  Peace  and  Liberty ! 
Hail,  breezy  cliff,  gray  rock,  majestic  sea  ! 
Here  man  should  walk  with  heavenward-lifted  eye, 
Free  as  the  winds  and  open  as  the  sky ! 
O  thou  who  here  hast  had  thy  childhood's  home, 
And  ye  who  one  brief  hour  of  summer  roam 
These  winding  shores  to  breathe  the  bracing  breeze, 
And  feel  the  freedom  of  the  skies  and  seas, 
Think  what  exalted  sainted  minds  once  found 
The  sod,  the  sand  ye  tread  on,  holy  ground  I 
Think  how  an  Allston's  soul-enkindled  eye 
Drank  in  the  glories  of  our  sunset  sky  I 
Think  how  a  Berkeley's  genius  haunts  the  air, 
And  makes  our  crags  and  waters  doubly  fair  I 
Think  how  a  Channing,  musing  by  the  sea, 
Burned  with  the  quenchless  love  of  liberty  ! 
What  work  God  witnessed,  and  that  lonely  shore, 
Wrought  in  him  midst  the  elemental  roar ! 
How  did  that  spot  his  youthful  heart  inform, 
Dear  in  the  sunshine,  dearer  in  the  storm! 
"  The  Father  reigneth,  let  the  earth  rejoice 
And  tremble  !  "  there  he  lifted  up  his  voice 
In  praise  amid  the  tempest  —  softened,  there. 
By  Nature's  beauty,  rose  the  lowly  prayer. 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  29 

There,  as,  in  reverential  sympathy, 
He  watched  the  heavings  of  the  giant  sea, 
Stirred  by  the  Power  that  ruled  that  glorious  din, 
Woke  the  dread  consciousness  of  power  within. 

Appearance  of  Newport  Forty  Years  ago.  — 
When  the  present  writer  first  entered  Newport 
(nearly  forty-five  years  ago)  there  still  lin- 
gered an  air  and  aspect  about  the  ancient  and 
dreamy  town  which  recalled  far  more  readily 
than  to  the  visitor  in  these  days  of  improve- 
ment the  look  it  wore  to  the  eyes  of  the  boy 
Channing  at  the  end  of  the  last  century.  The 
old  stone  mill  may  be  said  to  have  still  stood 
almost  on  the  outskirts  of  the  town,  with 
hardly  any  thing  except  a  farm-house  or  two 
to  break  the  sweep  of  open  fields  between 
that  old  landmark  and  the  "  Boat-house- 
gully"  at  the  southern  extremity  of  the  island. 
The  old  wooden  steps  led  down  into  "  Con- 
rad's Cave."  The  Redwood  Library  consisted 
as  yet  only  of  the  small,  graceful,  and  finely 
preserved  building  which  now  forms  its  front. 
A  venerable  high  brick-wall  enclosed  the 
"  Jews'    Burying-ground."      The    now    smooth 


30  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

and  comparatively  stately  Bull  Street  was  then 
the  lonely  and  grassy  Bull's  Lane,  and  was 
dominated  by  an  old,  dark,  deserted  distillery, 
one  of  the  leading  institutions  of  the  olden 
time.  At  its  upper  end  was  an  old,  aban- 
doned ropewalk,  and  another  at  the  end  of 
Catharine  Street,  where  it  sloped  beach-ward ; 
and  still  another  ran  along  the  side  of  the  old 
burying-ground  on  (the  appropriately  named) 
Farewell  Street.  The  old  Governor  Coddington 
House  was  still  standing  in  Marlboro'  Street. 
The  old  Liberty  Tree  (a  sycamore)  with  the 
names  of  the  burners  of  the  "  Gaspee "  on  a 
copper  plate,  half  overgrown  by  its  clasping 
bark,  was  still  standing  in  front  of  the  house  of 
Ellery  the  Signer.  At  the  head  of  Long  Wharf 
was  seen  a  row  of  high,  dingy  old  stores,  the 
rear  of  which  hung  directly  over  the  water,  with 
the  outstanding  beam  by  which  cargoes  were 
hoisted  in  the  days  when  Newport  did  not  yet 
fear  the  rivalry  of  New  York.  In  the  neighbor- 
hood of  the  "  Cove  "  and  along  the  "  Point " 
were   still   visible   the   foundation-posts   of  old 


WILLIAM   ELLERY  CHANNING.  31 

distilleries,  and  in  the  main  street  the  old  pave- 
ment (laid  at  the  expense  of  **  one  moiety"  of 
the  import  duties  on  slaves)  showed  frequent 
blades  of  grass  growing  between  the  stones,  and 
along  the  middle  was  a  row  of  the  broadest 
paving-stones,  said  to  have  been  intended  for 
the  convenience  of  foot-passengers,  and  some- 
what sunken,  also,  for  the  convenience  of  run- 
ning waters.  At  the  point  where  one  turns 
from  Long  Wharf  to  Washington  Street,  stood 
the  aged  Washington  Tavern,  with  the  scarcely- 
recognizable  portrait  of  the  Father  of  his  Coun- 
try swinging  over  its  door,  recalling  the  day 
when  he  himself  came  up  the  wharf  side  by 
side  with  Rochambeau ;  and  across  the  inner 
harbor,  where  Goat  Island  now  displays  its 
lovely  row  of  •  cottages  and  all  the  appurte- 
nances of  a  naval  station,  a  solitary  old  barrack 
kept  alive  the  memory  of  the  "  Last  War,"  and 
an  aged  veteran  pensioner  every  spring  paraded 
the  streets  of  the  town  with  a  drum  strapped  to 
his  shoulders,  on  which  he  beat  the  call  to  town- 
meeting  for  the  annual  election. 


32  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

Add  to  all  this  the  daily  presence  in  the 
streets  of  sundry  nonagenarians,  white-skinned 
and  dark-skinned,  and  fancy  could,  without  a 
violent  effort,  rehabilitate  the  old  town  and 
look  upon  it  with  the  youthful  Channing's  eyes. 
There  was  still,  in  its  old  Puritan  severity  of  form, 
the  Stiles  Meeting-house  of  his  childhood,  and 
there  was  the  old  vane  surmounting  its  spire, 
with  the  prophetic  "  W  E  "  standing  out  against 
the  sky,  suggesting  to  the  fancy  of  one  beholder, 
at  least,  the  missing  letter  *'  C  "  of  the  name  of 
the  boy  who  used  to  stand  in  one  of  the  pews 
below,  and  once,  when  a  man,  stood  in  the 
pulpit,  and  whose  name  has  since  been  set 
high  in  the  sky  of  memory.  And  there  stood, 
scarcely  changed,  the  old  Channing  homestead, 
midway  on  the  diagonal  between  the  two  par- 
sonages, that  of  good  old  Parson  Wheaton  of 
Trinity  Church,  on  the  street  above,  and  that 
of  Dr.  Hopkins  on  the  street  below. 

"What  remains  unchanged  To-day.  —  And,  after 
all,    however     great    the    changes    that     have 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  33 

taken  place  in  the  old  town  itself  since  Chan- 
ning's  youthful  feet  roamed  its  streets  and  his 
eyes  looked  upon  its  then  ancient  and  storied 
houses,  of  which  only  here  and  there  one  re- 
mains with  nearly  its  old  look,  —  Old  Trin- 
ity, for  instance,  with  its  tall  and  graceful 
spire ;  the  old  State  House  at  the  head  of  the 
parade,  and  the  Town  Hall  at  the  foot  of  it; 
the  headquarters  of  Washington ;  the  home  of 
Malbone,  the  painter;  the  chamber  in  which 
Washington  led  the  ball  with  "  pretty  Polly 
Lawton ;  "  the  old  Sabbatarian  meeting-house 
in  Barney  Street,  where  Callender  delivered 
the  first  Century  Sermon;  the  Jewish  Syna- 
gogue; the  Redwood  Library;  and  the  crown- 
ing relic,  the  old  mill,  —  yet  the  same  features  of 
the  face  of  nature  which  caught  and  charmed 
the  eyes  of  the  boy  Channing  meet  ours  to-day. 
There  are  sky  and  sea,  beach  and  bay,  bold 
cliff  and  spray- wreathed  headland,  outrunning 
ledge  of  rock  and  lovely  sweep  and  swell  of 
inland  landscape ;  there  are  Purgatory  and  Para- 
dise, and  the  Glen  and  the  Green  End  road, 
3 


34  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

and  Honeyman's  Hill  and  Quaker's  Hill  (from 
which  Channing  often  sat,  in  his  old  chaise, 
gazing  up  the  bay),  and  near  and  far  the  many 
lovely  islands ;  there  is  the  '*  Whetstone,"  and 
Sachuest  and  Seconnet;  there  are  Rose  Island 
and  Conanicut,  —  the  everlasting  murmur  of  the 
ocean  and  the  everlasting  rampart  of  the  rocks. 

The  Channing  Homestead.  —  The  visitor  to 
Newport,  —  a  pilgrim,  it  may  well  be,  from  a  far- 
off  land,  —  among  the  relics  of  olden  times  which 
grace  this  ancient  town,  will  seek,  sooner  than 
almost  any  other,  the  house  in  which  Channing 
was  born.  If  he  comes  up  Mary  Street  (or 
Mary's  latte^  as  it  used  to  be  called),  when  he 
reaches  the  old  Trinity  School-house  at  the 
corner  of  School  Street,  he  will  see  facing  him, 
on  the  opposite  corner,  a  square  wooden  house 
of  two  stories,  only  with  a  third  smaller  one 
seemingly  about  to  grow  up  out  of  the  roof, 
over  the  street-door  of  which  is  the  modest  sign, 
"Children's  Home."  In  this  still  well-pre- 
served dwelling   the    child    Channing   first   saw 


WILLIAM   ELLERY  CHANNING.  35 

the  light,  first  greeted  and  was  greeted  by  that 
heavenly  friend  and  minister,  which,  to  his  latest 
moment,  was  to  be  one  of  the  peculiar  joys  of 
his  life.  On  the  next  street  below,  in  a  diagonal 
direction,  then  separated  only  by  a  garden,  was 
the  gambrel-roofed  parsonage  of  Dr.  Hopkins ; 
so  that  the  young  Channing  could  easily  see  (as 
he  says  he  did  early  one  winter-morning)  the 
light  beaming  from  the  window  of  the  little  ten- 
by-twelve  study-chamber,  where  the  old  man 
sat  working  at  a  sermon,  or  perhaps  adding 
some  new  link  to  the  chain  of  his  iron  logic; 
or  where,  as  Professor  Park  says,  in  his  memoir 
of  Hopkins,  '*we  can  almost  see  him  bending 
over  his  familiar  desk,  and  listening  to  the  roar 
of  the  ocean,  and  writing  such  words  as  these : 
'The  weak  Christian,  in  the  midst  of  strong 
temptations  and  potent  enemies  constantly  seek- 
ing and  exerting  all  their  power  and  cunning  to 
destroy  him,  is  preserved  and  upheld  through  a 
course  of  trial  by  the  mighty,  omnipotent  hand 
of  the  Redeemer ;  and  the  little  spark  of  holiness 
implanted   in  the  believer's  heart  is  continued 


S6  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

alive  and  burning,  while  there  is  so  much,  both 
within  and  without,  tending  to  extinguish  it; 
which  is  really  more  of  a  constant  miracle  and 
manifestation  of  the  power  of  Christ  than  it 
would  be  to  preserve  a  little  spark  of  fire  for  a 
course  of  years  in  the  midst  of  the  sea,  while 
the  mighty  waves  are  fiercely  dashing  against 
it  and  upon  it,  attempting  to  overwhelm  and 
extinguish  it.'  " 

If  the  street  on  which  the  Channing  family 
lived  had  been  continued  southward  across 
Church  Street  (where  it  now  ends),  it  would 
open  directly  upon  what  was  then  the  Hopkins 
Meeting-house,  visible  across  the  fields  from  the 
parsonage,  in  which  the  young  man,  on  the 
completion  of  his  preparatory  studies,  preached 
his  first  sermon,  and  which,  a  generation  later, 
when  it  was  remodelled  and  newly  clothed  upon, 
as  the  temple  of  a  more  rational  worship,  he  was 
the  organ  of  dedicating  to  the  Father  in  "  a 
service  of  gratitude  and  joy." 

It  is  not  easy  to  avoid  anticipating  ourselves 
in   this   attractive,   though    oft-repeated    story. 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 


37 


One  can  hardly  resist  the  temptation  of  letting 
his  thoughts  run  onward  from  the  beginnings 
to  the  future  of  such  a  history,  when  that  future 
has  long  been  an  illustrious  past.  But  let  us 
still,  for  a  time,  transport  ourselves  back  to  the 
morning  of  that  Hfe-day  we  have  begun  to 
describe. 

The  Period  of  Channing's  Birth.  —  What  has 
been  said  of  the  position  of  the  house  in  which 
Channing  was  born  in  relation  to  the  house  and 
meeting-house  of  Dr.  Hopkins,  as  it  calls  up  the 
image  of  this  veteran  soldier  of  the  cross,  and  the 
persistent  and  manifold  warfare  he  had  to  wage 
with  the  world  around  him,  leads  us  naturally, 
after  having  spoken  of  the  place,  to  speak  of  the 
period,  in  which  Channing,  the  candid  eulogist 
of  the  old  champion  of  Calvinism,  was  born,  and 
the  influences,  social,  political,  and  theological, 
amidst  which  he  spent  his  early  years.  Thus 
we  shall  see  what  a  large  and  well-furnished 
school -ground  Providence  had  prepared  for 
the   education   of   this   pupil    to    the    peculiar 


38  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

service   his   after-life   was   to    perform    for    his 
brethren. 

Newport  after  the  Revolution.  —  It  is  common 
to  call  the  actual  fighting-days  of  the  Revolution 
**  the  times  that  tried  men's  souls."  But  often 
the  times  that  follow  such  terrible  struggles  try 
the  souls  of  men  in  a  still  stricter  and  more 
searching  sense  of  the  language,  by  testing  the 
strength  of  moral  principle  and  the  depth  and 
reality  and  practical  worth  of  religious  convic- 
tion. The  war  had  so  terribly  scathed  and  shat- 
tered old  Newport  in  its  out\vard  condition,  that 
when  Dr.  Hopkins  came  back  to  the  place  (in 
the  very  spring  of  Channing's  birth)  after  its 
three  years'  occupation  by  the  enemy,  he  found 
the  wealthier  half  of  the  population  gone,  several 
hundred  houses  (his  own  among  them)  burned 
to  the  ground,  and  his  meeting-house  so  much 
burned  as  to  be  unfit  for  occupation.  But  the 
moral  and  spiritual  distraction  and  desolation 
that  prevailed  tried  the  old  man  more  sorely 
than  any  of  these  external  grievances.     Scepti- 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  39 

cism  and  sensuality,  indifference  and  intemper- 
ance, held  wide  sway;  the  curse  of  slavery  was 
on  these  lovely  shores,  for  Newport  was  for 
some  time  yet  "the  slave-market  of  America;  " 
and  the  Christianity  which  should  have  made  a 
combined  head  against  these  evils  was  a  kingdom 
divided  against  itself.  There  were  Quakers, 
Baptists,  Free-Will  Baptists,  Seventh-Day  Bap- 
tists, Moravians,  Methodists,  Jews,  Episcopalians, 
Universalists,  and  Individualists  of  the  oddest 
and  extremest  kinds.  But  the  most  comprehen- 
sive statement  of  the  situation  would  be  to  call 
the  threefold  enemy  of  true  religion  which  then, 
as  now,  held  the  field,  superstition,  sensuality, 
and  indifference.  And  if  the  good  Dr.  Hopkins 
could  have  supposed  that  his  mode  of  presenting 
the  gospel  only  aggravated  the  indifference  or 
scepticism  or  rationalism  which  surrounded  him 
like  an  atmosphere,  he  would  doubtless  have 
set  it  down  to  the  credit  of  his  doctrine  and  to 
the  condemnation  of  the  depraved  nature  which 
rose  against  it.  It  has  been  said  of  him,  by  one 
of  his  eulogists,  that  when  he  entered  the  pulpit 


40  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

"sinners  trembled  and  good  men  rejoiced."  But 
there  can  be  little  doubt  that  among  the  (so- 
called)  sinners  were  some  who  were  ready  to 
rejoice,  could  they  have  had  set  before  them  the 
simple,  reasonable,  practical  ^^j/^/, — what  could, 
without  a  gross  misnomer,  be  called  good  news 
from  Heaven. 

In  the  midst  of  all  these  influences,  however, 
a  child  was  growing  up,  whom  Divine  Providence 
was  training  to  proclaim  and  illustrate  this  true 
evangel  in  its  purity  and  with  power;  to  set 
before  his  fellow-men  the  gospel  of  Christ  in 
such  a  fair  and  lovely  light  that  calm  reason 
need  not  be  ashamed  of  it.  And  yeti  if  Rhode 
Island  was  the //^^^,  no  less  was  Hopkins  him- 
self the  person,  to  whose  influence  this  child, 
when  he  grew  to  manhood,  avowed  himself  more 
indebted  than  to  any  other,  after  that  of  his 
revered  parents,  and  whom  he  indeed  regarded 
as  a  spiritual  father. 

But  whatever  outward  influences  may  have 
helped  form,  educate,  and  develop  Channing's 
nature,  still,  as  has  often  been  said  of  him,  and 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  C MANNING.  4 1 

by  him,  the  most  important  part  of  his  cul- 
ture was  internal,  and  came  from  the  reaction 
of  his  native  energies  and  propensions  upon 
the  appeals  which  the  world  and  nature  and 
life  around  him  made  to  his  soul. 

Channing's  Parentage  and  Ancestry.  —  And  this, 
again,  naturally  leads  us,  from  speaking  of  the 
place  and  period  of  Channing's  birth,  to  say- 
something  of  his  parents  and  progenitors.  Both 
on  his  father's  and  on  his  mother's  side  he  came 
of  a  choice  ancestry.  From  his  maternal  grand- 
father, William  EUery,  the  Signer,  as  well  as 
from  his  paternal  grandmother,  Mary  Chaloner, 
well  remembered  a  generation  ago  in  her  first 
widowhood,  "  behind  the  counter  of  her  little 
shop,  dressed  with  great  precision,  busily  knit- 
ting and  receiving  her  customers  or  visitors 
with  an  air  of  formal  courtesy  that  awed  the 
young  and  commanded  general  respect,"  — 
from  such  grandparents  as  these  —  the  plain, 
sensible  patriot,  patriarch,  and  philosopher;  the 
"high-spirited    and    ardent,    yet    religious    and 


42     •  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

conscientious,"  active  and  methodical,  matron 
—  the  child  Channing  might  well  have  in- 
herited some  of  the  most  marked  qualities  of 
his  nature.  But  his  parents  themselves  were 
bothpersons  of  strong  sense  and  fine  character. 
His  father,  William  Channing,  was  an  eminent 
Newport  lawyer,  a  true  gentleman,  affable  and 
affectionate,  faithful  in  business,  and  friendly 
to  all  men;  marked,  as  his  distinguished  son 
has  written  of  him,  by  **  the  benignity  of  his 
countenance  and  voice,"  and  "  the  delight  of 
the  circle  in  which  he  moved."  His  mother, 
Lucy  EUery,  is  described  by  her  nephew  as 
**  small  in  person,  but  erect  in  bearing  and 
elastic  in  movement;  and  strongly  marked  fea- 
tures, with  a  singularly  bright  and  penetrating 
eye,  gave  her  an  air  of  self-reliance  and  command. 
Her  manner  was  generally  benignant,  often 
tenderly  affectionate,  and  marked  by  the  digni- 
fied courtesy  of  the  old  school ;  but  if  pretension 
and  fraud,  in  any  of  their  manifold  disguises, 
crossed  her  path,  she  became  chillingly  re- 
served and  blunt  to  the  verge  of  severity." 


The  Mother  of  Chanmng. 
After  a  Painting  by  Washington  Allston. 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING,  43 

The  likeness  which,  through  the  kindness  of 
Dr.  WiUiam  F.  Channing,  her  grandson,  enriches 
this  book,  tells  the  whole  story  about  her.  And 
every  one  who  looks  at  it  is  struck  at  once  with 
the  resemblance  to  her  distinguished  son.  It  is 
almost  as  if  he  were  disguising  himself  in  his 
mother's  dress. 

It  has  been  said  that  great  men  generally 
inherit  more  from  mother  than  father.  Dr. 
Channing  seems  to  have  been  no  exception  to 
this  rule,  though  the  best  traits  of  both  parents, 
as  well  as  of  their  parents,  appear  to  have  been 
happily  blended  in  his  honest  and  earnest,  careful 
and  conscientious,  tender  and  truthful,  in  a  word, 
manly  and  godly,  character.  Both  from  his 
own  mother  and  his  father's  mother,  however, 
he  seems  to  have  derived  his  most  individual 
traits. 

Channing  might  almost  have  appropriated  the 
words  with  which  Marcus  AureHus  opens  his 
personal  introduction  to  his  **  Moral  Maxims :  " — 

''From  my  grandfather  ...  I  learned  good 
morals,  and  the  government  of  my  temper. 


44  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

**  From  the  reputation  and  remembrance  of 
my  father,  modesty  and  a  manly  character. 

"  From  my  mother,  piety  and  beneficence, 
and  abstinence,  not  only  from  evil  deeds,  but 
even  from  evil  thoughts;'  and  further,  simplicity 
in  my  way  of  living,  far  removed  from  the  habits 
of  the  rich." 

Channing  as  a  Child.  —  It  is  pleasant  to  imagine 
—  it  would  be  pleasanter  if  for  the  moment  a 
miracle  could  be  wrought,  and  the  hand  of  Time 
put  back,  and  with  our  present  knowledge  of  the 
man  he  was  to  be,  we  could  see  with  our  eyes 
the  boy  Channing,  as  the  memory  of  a  venerable 
worshipper  in  the  old  meeting-house  has  pictured 
him  to  us,  standing  up  by  his  mother  on  the 
pew-seat,  in  his  blue  jacket  and  white  trousers, 
with  his  fine  waving  hair,  looking  round  on  the 
people.  Could  we  realize  the  personal  iden- 
tity of  the  child  with  the  man  of  sixty,  looking 
round  with  his  placid,  paternal  smile  on  the 
farmer-folk  in  the  httle  meeting-house  at  Ports- 
mouth? 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  45 

As  a  child  he  was  marked  by  rare  thought- 
fulness  and  tenderness.  So  far  was  he  from  the 
cruelty  to  animals  so  often  witnessed  in  children 
(by  many  ascribed  to  inborn  depravity,  but 
more  probably  owing  to  an  insensibility  arising 
from  ignorance  or  thoughtlessness),  that  he  felt 
a  keen  pang  of  grief  and  resentment  at  the 
suffering  of  the  smallest  creature ;  knowing  that 

"  The  poor  beetle  that  we  tread  upon, 
In  corporal  sufferance  finds  a  pang  as  great 
As  when  a  giant  dies." 

Upon  this  trait  one  of  his  French  biographers 
remarks :  *'  He  who  sheds  these  tears  over  the 
destruction  of  a  bird's-nest  will  not  cease  to 
groan  over  the  evils  which  burden  humanity, 
and  to  feel  therfi  as  so  many  wounds  inflicted 
upon  his  heart."  But  there  were,  as  we  shall 
see  (or,  rather,  as  the  world  has  seen),  other  and 
mightier  elements  that  entered  into  the  compo- 
sition of  the  philanthropy  of  the  mature  man. 

His  Boyhood.  —  The  boy  William  was  distin- 
guished among  his  fellows  by  a  rare  union  of 


46  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

energy  and  exuberance  of  spirits,  daring  and  de- 
cision of  purpose,  with  a  tender,  thoughtful  con- 
scientiousness and  saintly  purity.  It  is  not  easy 
for  us — who  knew  Dr.  Channing  only  in  the 
last  five  or  ten  years  of  his  life,  as  a  pale,  delicate 
shred  of  a  body,  "•  hardly  enough  to  anchor  his 
soul  among  us,"  reminding  one  of  those  aged 
olive-trees  on  the  hills  of  Tivoli,  clinging  to  the 
earth  by  so  attenuated  a  sliver  of  trunk  as  to 
make  them  seem  at  a  little  distance  suspended 
in  the  air  —  to  think  of  him  as  a  vigorous, 
agile,  athletic  youth ;  a  racer,  wrestler,  climber, 
whom  it  was  necessary  sometimes  to  hold  back 
by  force  from  break-neck  adventures ;  hilarious 
at  times  in  his  gayety,  and  boisterous  in  his 
laughter  (''  les  eclats  stridents  de  ce  rire  franc  et 
sonore,"  a  French  biographer  says)  ;  the  cham- 
pion of  his  compank>ns  in  many  a  strait  against 
injustice  and  oppression ;  acting  the  David 
against  a  Goliath  of  a  builly ;  enacting  in  a  fig- 
ure that 

**  Village  Hampden,  who,  with  dauntless  breast, 
The  little  tyrant  of  his  fields  withstood." 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 


47 


But  so  it  was,  before  the  spirit  had  yet  grown 
too  strong  for  the  flesh.  Yet  this  same  high- 
spirited  boy  was  so  genuinely  religious  that 
Washington  Allston  said  of  him,  *'  though  he 
was  several  months  my  junior,  ...  I  always 
looked  up  to  him,  even  in  boyhood,  with  re- 
spect." Indeed,  he  acquired  among  his  play- 
fellows the  title  of  ''the  little  minister."  It 
was  not  merely  from  the  fact  of  his  doing  so 
simply  and  solemnly  what  children  so  very 
often  and  early  find  a  peculiar  charm  in  doing 
(for  childhood  is  just  what  it  was  in  the  days 
of  Jesus),  namely,  playing  the  preacher.  This, 
indeed,  little  William,  it  is  said,  would  go 
through  with  singular  unction;  for  want  of 
bell,  summoning  his  congregation  to  worship 
by  the  extemporized  gong  of  a  warming-pan, 
and  delivering  sermons  (perhaps  not  written 
by  him),  one  of  which  was  long  remembered 
for  its  text,  the  cry  of  the  child  brought  in 
from  the  field  with  a  sunstroke,  —  "  My  head  ! 
my  head !  "  But  not  in  such  set  and  solemn 
way  alone    did    the    boy   Channing  justify  the 


48  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

ministerial  title  so  early  attached  to  him. 
He  was  a  real  minister  in  deed  as  well  as 
word;  "the  little  peacemaker"  his  companions 
also  called  him,  and  ''  little  King  Pepin"  (as  he 
was  long  after  said  to  have  been  born  for  a 
mediator  in  the  Church)  ;  and  he  was  by  his 
example  a  preacher  of  magnanimity,  purity,  and 
righteousness.  Beauty  of  person  he  is  said  to 
have  had,  and  he  joined  to  it  the  beauty  of 
holiness.  ''  He  is  described,"  says  W.  H.  Chan- 
ning,  "  as  having  been  small  and  delicate,  yet 
muscular  and  active,  with  a  very  erect  person, 
quick  movement,  a  countenance  that,  while 
sedate,  was  cheerful,  and  a  singularly  sweet 
smile,  which  he  never  lost  through  life." 

His  three  Schools.  —  Thus,  already,  in  his  ten- 
der years  was  this  thoughtful  and  truthful  boy 
learning  in  the  school  of  Providence,  —  in  its 
three  apartments  of  home,  the  world,  and  the 
chamber  of  his  own  soul,  —  learning  and  even 
teaching  that  simple  and  genuine  religion  of 
which  he  was  one  day  to  be  so  eminent  a  pubHc 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  C MANNING.  49 

teacher,  and  which  was  then  so  sadly  maltreated 
and  misrepresented,  between  a  narrow  pietism 
on  the  one  hand  and  a  settled  unconcern,  if  not 
positive  ridicule,  on  the  other.  Religion,  as 
represented  in  .its  professors  around  him,  was 
mostly  either  a  creed  or  a  ceremony  or  a  sen- 
sation. His  sensitive  conscience,  —  the  voice  of 
God  within  him,  —  kept  alive  by  home  influence, 
and  especially  by  the  enforcement  and  example 
of  that  truth-telling  and  truth-exacting  mother, 
made  him  keenly  sensible  of  the  truth  that 
religion,  if  any  thing,  must  be  the  law  of  the 
heart  and  the  controlling  principle  of  the  whole 
life.  From  the  natural  guardians  of  his  youth, 
and  even  from  that  (doctrinally)  stern  old 
Calvinist,  who  was  the  first  pastor  of  the  family 
he  ever  knew,  he  had  learned  the  lesson,  which 
his  inborn  disposition  found  congenial,  of  the 
worthlessness  of  mere  profession  and  pretension  ; 
and  his  native  chivalry  combined  with  his  con- 
scientiousness to  make  him  hate  all  shams,  as 
much  as  did  the  good  old  Dr.  Hopkins  him- 
self. 


50  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

Early  Spiritual  Influences.  —  We  must  remember 
that  when,  after  the  Revolution,  or,  more  exactly, 
at  the  close  of  the  British  occupation  of  New- 
port, which  had  broken  up  the  churches,  in  the 
spring  of  1780  they  were  opened  again,  as  Dr. 
Stiles  did  not  return  to  his  people,  they  wor- 
shipped with  Dr.  Hopkins's  till  young  Chan- 
ning  was  six  years  old.  It  conjures  up  an  odd 
picture  to  think  of  the  future  Dr.  Channing 
reciting  out  of  the  Westminster  Catechism 
to  Dr.  Hopkins  !  Grace  was  given  the  child  to 
reject  the  indigestible  shell  of  Calvinistic  irra- 
tionalities and  inconsistencies,  and  take  only 
(what  indeed,  after  all,  the  noble-souled  old 
warrior  valued  more  than  all)  the  kernel  of 
reverence  for  truth  and  honest  conviction. 

The  incident  that  first,  or  most  decidedly, 
startled  and  shocked  his  tender  mind  with  a 
sense  of  the  hollowness  of  the  reigning  religion, 
was  his  going  with  his  father  to  hear  a  revi- 
valist—  a  preacher  of  terror  —  whose  doctrines 
seemed  to  darken  the  very  atmosphere  and 
spread  over  the  earth  the  shadow  of  impending 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  51 

judgment;  but  to  the  amazement  of  the  sim- 
ple-hearted boy,  the  father,  instead  of  evin- 
cing any  practical  concern  at  such  appalling 
news  from  the  other  world,  beyond  remarking 
to  a  neighbor  on  leaving  church,  "  Sound  doc- 
trine, sir ! "  rode  home  whistling,  and  on  enter- 
ing the  house,  comfortably  ensconced  himself 
before  the  fire  and  began  reading  a  newspaper ! 
Well  might  the  boy  have  had  a  feeling  which, 
translated  into  maturer  thought,  would  have 
said :  "  If  so  good  a  man  as  my  father  can  be 
so  beguiled  as  to  let  this  hollow  bluster  pass 
for  sound  and  wholesome  religion,  how  deep- 
rooted  and  how  baneful  must  be  the  perversion 
of  religion  which  exerts  such  an  influence !  " 
*'  He  felt,"  says  his  nephew,  who  gives  the  story 
in  its  full  details  on  his  eloquent  pages,  —  "  he 
felt  that  he  had  been  trifled  with,  that  the 
preacher  had  deceived  him  ;  and  from  that  time 
he  became  inclined  to  distrust  every  thing  ora- 
torical, and  to  measure  exactly  the  meaning  of 
words;  he  had  received  a  profound  lesson  on 
the  worth  of  sincerity."     And  how  well  he  had 


52  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

learned  and  how  deeply  he  prized  this  lesson, 
how  vital  an  element  of  religion  itself  he  felt 
the  quality  of  simplicity  and  sincerity  to  be, 
shines  out  in  all  his  later  words  and  ways,  not 
only  in  his  repeated  advice  to  young  preachers, 
but  in  his  own  preaching,  correspondence,  and 
conversation,  and,  when  (which  was  rarely)  he 
entered  into  such,  his  controversies. 

So  passed  Channing's  boyhood.  "  The  clew 
of  our  destiny,"  it  has  been  beautifully  said,  "  lies 
at  the  cradle-foot.  Self-love  would  willingly 
seek  it  anywhere  else ;  but  there,  —  whether  our 
manhood  press  the  green  savanna  or  tread  the 
marble  hall,  —  there  will  the  backward  glance 
of  the  inquiring  spirit  be  ever  sure  to  find  it." 
Only  in  this  case  the  a-adle-foot  must  be  inter- 
preted in  a  larger  than  the  literal  sense.  To  the 
starry-roofed  cradle  of  Mother  Nature  also  we 
must  turn  our  thoughts,  when  we  seek  the  in- 
fluences which  conspired  to  mould  Channing's 
impressible  soul.  In  the  sacred  school  of  a 
strict  and  yet  tender  domestic  discipHne ;  in  the 
wholesome    school    of  "  plain   living    and    high 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 


53 


thinking ;  "  in  the  large  school  of  the  street, 
the  shop,  the  wharf,  and  the  playground ;  in  the 
school  of  deferential  intercourse  with  Puritani- 
cal, but  kindly  and  godly  elders ;  finally,  in  the 
school  of  solitary  communion  with  the  Omni- 
present under  the  sky  and  on  the  seashore; 
and  above  all  and  in  all,  in  the  school  of  his 
own  self-communing  thoughts,  as  a  child  of  that 
Infinite  Father,  —  so  did  the  child  and  the 
boy  receive  his  training  for  the  great  work 
which  God  had  marked  out  for  him ;  and 
though  some  undiscerning  pedant  of  a  school- 
master might,  at  one  time,  set  him  down  for  a 
dunce  in  a  certain  branch  of  required  study,  he 
was  destined  to  exemplify  the  distinction  of  the 
poet:  — 

"  Knowledge  dwells 
In  heads  replete  with  thoughts  of  other  men ; 
Wisdom,  in  minds  attentive  to  their  own.'** 

Channing  himself  has  somewhere  said  that  in 
his  childish  years  he  had  nothing  of  the  boy 
about  him  except  the  love  of  play.  It  has 
been  asserted,  but  apparently  without  good  au- 
thority, that  his  fondness  for  lonely  rambles  and 


54  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

musings  gained  him  with  his  fellows  the  title  of 
''William  the  Silent."  But  even  at  this  early 
period  we  can  discern  in  him  the  predominance 
of  that  self-communion,  self-study,  and  self- 
reverence,  which,  enlarged  and  elevated  by  the 
passionate  love  of  nature  and  the  vision  of  God 
in  nature,  formed  so  marked  a  trait  of  his 
character  in  maturer  years,  keeping  his  soul 
serene  and  steadfast  amidst  all  earthly  trials  and 
perplexities,  yet  not  in  cold  isolation,  but  in 
spiritual  communion  with  the  brethren  through 
very  communion  with  the  Father.  Thus  was 
the  child  father  of  the  man ;  the  child's  soul  the 
nursery  of  that  true  independence  which  means 
dependence  upon  God,  that  individuality  which 
respects  itself,  its  own  nature,  as  a  trust  from 
God,  to  be  guarded  and  used  for  his  glory  and 
the  good  of  his  children. 

The  Future  Man  and  Minister.  —  Rarely  do  we 
meet  an  instance  in  which  the  outer  and  inner 
worlds  of  childhood  exhibit  so  broadly  and 
palpably  the  working  of  the  elements  that  are 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  55 

to  make  up  the  history  and  character  of  the 
mature  man.  In  the  grave,  sensitive,  inquiring, 
reverent  soul  of  the  child,  how  clearly  we  see 
the  future  champion  of  that  true  religion  which 
consists  in  the  sincere  search  and  reverence  for 
truth  and  goodness  as  the  very  essence  of 
God! 

Singularly  fitted  were  the  circumstances  of 
Channing's  boyhood  to  educate  in  him  the 
power  to  discern  between  the  substance  of 
religion  and  the  shadow,  —  the  shadow,  as  it 
frowned  in  the  imposing  creeds  of  a  confused 
and  crabbed  theology;  the  substance,  as  it  re- 
vealed itself  in  the  homely  and  honest  qualities 
of  the  lowly  and  dutiful,  and  even  as  it  gleamed 
out  here  and  there  in  heavenly  contrast  with 
the  harsh  features  of  a  tyrannical  orthodoxy. 
In  the  honest  and  blunt  kindliness  of  old  Hop- 
kins, even  in  the  very  sternness  of  his  well-meant 
though  crudely  expressed  theology,  and  more 
in  the  noble  unselfishness  of  his  fight  with 
slavery;  in  the  very  strictness  of  that  Parson 
Thurston   who,  in    his    secular   employment   of 


56  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

cooper,  refused  to  make  casks  for  the  trans- 
portation of  rum  to  buy  slaves  with,  —  even 
here  the  boy  Channing  had  deepened  in  him 
the  conviction  that  integrity  was  the  essence  of 
rehgion.  By  his  own  testimony,  too,  he  learned 
the  same  lesson  of  the  colored  people,  the 
domestics,  and  the  neighbors  of  the  family ;  of 
old  Newport  Gardner,  Hopkins's  faithful  body- 
servant,  and  Duchess  Ouamino,  of  whom  George 
Channing  in  a  private  letter  says :  "  The  most 
truthful  worshipper  in  Dr.  Patten's  church  went 
by  the  name  of  Duchess ;  a  colored  woman  of 
royal  appearance.  At  her  death  my  brother, 
William  E.  Channing,  wrote  the  following  epi- 
taph, visible  to-day  on  her  tombstone  in  the 
common  burial-ground  in  Newport:  — 

£n  fHemors  of 
DUCHESS    QUAMINO, 

A  FREE  BLACK  OF  DISTINGUISHED  EXCELLENCE, 

INTELLIGENT,  INDUSTRIOUS,  AFFECTIONATE,  HONEST, 

AND  OF  EXEMPLARY  PIETY. 

Blest  be  thy  slumbers  in  this  house  of  clay, 
And  bright  thy  rising  to  eternal  day ! 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  57 

I  used  to  visit  her,  when  a  boy,  and  read  to 
her.  Her  title  but  feebly  portrayed  her  regal 
excellence  to  us  children." 

The  resting-place  of  this  queenly  personage 
cannot  be  said,  however,  to  have  any  regal  dis- 
tinction, unless  it  be  that  of  marked  seclusion ; 
for  a  reverent  seeker,  after  long  exploration  one 
June  morning,  found  the  gravestone  in  the  deep 
grass  at  the  most  remote  corner  of  the  old 
burial-ground,  apart  even  from  the  graves  of  her 
own  people. 

Schooling  and  Training  for  College.  —  After  re- 
ceiving instruction  from  four  successive  school- 
ma'ams  (whoever  has  seen  or  heard  described 
one  such,  knows  them  all),  William  was  sent  to 
the  famous  Master  Rogers,  under  whose  eye 
and  hand  so  many  eminent  men  from  different 
parts  of  our  country  have  in  turn  passed. 
Among  his  schoolmates  were  Malbone  and 
Washington  Allston,  the  latter  of  whom  char- 
acterizes him  in  a  letter  to  William  H.  Chan- 
ning,  as  "  an  open,  brave,  and  generous  boy." 


58  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

"And  I  well  remember,"  adds  Allston  (remind- 
ing us  that  in  this  quality  of  inspiring  reverence, 
also,  the  child  v^diS  father  of  the  mail),  '*  though 
he  was  several  months  my  junior  (a  matter  of 
some  importance  among  children),  that  I  al- 
ways looked  up  to  him,  even  in  boyhood,  with 
respect." 

At  the  age  of  twelve  he  was  transferred  to  the 
care  of  his  uncle,  Henry  Channing,  then  pastor 
in  New  London,  to  be  fitted  for  college.  From 
that  pleasant  home,  where  he  soon  endeared 
himself  to  his  kinsfolk  by  his  studious,  affec- 
tionate, and  respectful  demeanor,  he  was  sud- 
denly recalled  for  a  time,  in  a  little  more  than  a 
year,  by  the  death  of  his  father,  who  was  taken 
away  in  the  very  bloom  of  life,  and  in  the 
height  of  his  activity  and  usefulness.  The  es- 
teem in  which  he  was  held  by  the  community 
and  the  sorrow  for  his  death  are  expressed  in 
the  inscription  (probably  written  by  his  son 
William)  on  the  tablet  over  his  grave,  which 
faces  the  sky  on  the  hill-top  of  the  old  New- 
port burial-ground: 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  59 

En  iJEemorg  of 
WILLIAM    CHANNING, 

WHO    DIED   SEPT.  21,  1 793- 

AGED  42. 

HE    WAS    EMINENT    IN    THE    PROFESSION    OF    THE    LAW  ; 

BENEVOLENT   IN    HIS   INTERCOURSE  WITH   MANKIND ; 

FAITHFUL    IN    FRIENDSHIP; 

AN    EXAMPLE    OF  THOSE    VIRTUES    WHICH  ENDEAR 
DOMESTIC    LIFE, 

AND   A  ZEALOUS   SUPPORTER   OF  THE  PEACE  AND  ORDER 

OF   SOCIETY, 

AND    THE    INSTITUTIONS    OF    RELIGION. 

TAKEN    FROM    HIS   FAMILY   AND    NUMEROUS   CONNECTIONS 
IN   THE    MIDST    OF   USEFULNESS, 

HE   HAS   LEFT,  TO   SOOTHE  THEIR   SORROWS, 

THE    MEMORY   OF    HIS    VIRTUES, 

AND  THE   SUPPORTING    HOPE  OF  HIS  ACCEPTANCE  WITH   GOD 

THROUGH  THE   MERITS   OF  THE  REDEEMER. 

The  death  of  such  a  father  —  It  need  hardly  be 
said  —  threw  a  heavy  shadow  over  the  Channing 
household.  A  great  light,  as  well  as  a  strong 
staff,  v^as  gone.  The  anxious  mother  was  left 
with  a  family  of  nine  children.  William,  the 
oldest  but  one,  felt,  with  his  keenly  sensitive 
nature,  a  peculiar  load  of  responsibility  suddenly 
laid  upon  his  soul.     He  must  now  be  both  son 


6o  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

and  husband  to  that  stricken  mother,  and  gird 
himself  up  to  be  a  father  to  the  family.  He 
seemed  to  have  leaped  from  boyhood  to  man- 
hood. "  Little  minister  "  he  was  now  indeed  to 
be  in  an  emphatic  sense.  From  this  moment 
his  resolution  was  taken  to  gain  as  soon  as  pos- 
sible some  position  where  he  could  give  his  re- 
vered mother  a  home  free  from  care.  But  for 
him  the  way  to  such  an  end  lay  through  high 
culture,  and  he  went  back  to  the  sunny  home  of 
his  genial  uncle  to  complete  his  college  prep- 
aration, and  in  the  autumn  of  1794  he  entered 
Harvard,  being  then  In  the  middle  of  his  fif- 
teenth year. 

Cambridge  in  1794.  —  Harvard  College  had 
then  only  one  hundred  and  seventy-three  stu- 
dents. At  a  time  when  there  were  not  so 
many  in  all  the  College  as  there  are  now  In 
one  class,  there  was  probably  more  intercourse 
among  the  young  men,  irrespective  of  class 
lines,  than  now  exists  among  members  of  the 
same   class;  though  the    modern    extension    of 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  6 1 

the  elective  system  in  study,  doubtless,  does 
a  great  deal  toward  making  college  attach- 
ments independent  of  class  relations.  At  all 
events,  there  is  probably  a  far  less  strong,  or  at 
least  peculiar,  bond  of  union  among  the  under- 
graduates generally  than  there  was  a  hundred 
or  fifty  years  ago,  when  the  College  was  com- 
paratively a  cloistral  seclusion,  and  not  so  much 
in  the  glare  of  the  world. 

Channing's  Classmates.  —  Among  Channing's 
classmates  were  Joseph  Tuckerman,  Joseph 
Story,  and  Sidney  Willard,  the  son  of  the  Presi- 
dent, well  remembered  by  all  graduates  of  half 
a  century  ago  as  that  amiable  Latin  Professor,  so 
tenderly  pictured  in  a  college  poem  of  William 
Simmons  called  "  The  Last  Latin  Recitation," 
one  clause  of  which  runs:  — 

"  In  professorial  eye  methinks  there  glimmers 
A  something  moist." 

This  kindly  old  man,  in  his  "  Memories  of 
Youth    and    Manhood,"   gives   careful   sketches 


62  WILLIAM  ELLERY  C MANNING. 

of  the  traits  and  fortunes  of  all  his  class.  Of 
Channing  he  says :  **  In  mathematics  he  prob- 
ably had  his  superiors;  but  in  rhetoric  and 
written  composition,  in  the  languages,  in  ethi- 
cal and  intellectual  science  and  metaphysics,  he 
was  unsurpassed  by  any,  and  in  some  of  these 
eminent  above  all."  Judge  Story  undoubtedly 
was  in  error  in  pronouncing  that  he  had  no 
relish  for  mathematics  or  metaphysics.  It  was 
not  that  he  loved  natural  and  intellectual  phi- 
losophy less,  but  moral  science,  history,  and 
general  literature  more.  Both  classmates,  how- 
ever, agree  that  "  his  command  of  pure  English, 
and  intelligible,  accurate,  and  fluent  expression 
of  the  author's  thoughts  in  his  translations  of 
passages  assigned  to  him  in  Latin  and  Greek, 
and  his  natural  and  graceful  address  in  recita- 
tions of  the  English  studies,  translating  in  a 
manner  the  thoughts  of  the  authors  which  he 
had  made  his  own,  into  language  of  his  own, 
were  so  remarkable  that  he  was  acknowledged 
without  rivalship,  and  consequently  without 
envy,  to  be  chief." 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  C MANNING.  63 

His  College  Mates.  —  In  glancing  over  the  lists 
of  the  classes  in  the  Triennial  Catalogue,  from 
1795  to  1 801,  one  can  readily  imagine  that  Chan- 
ning  may  have  found  as  much  congenial  com- 
panionship out  of  his  class  as  in  it.  Among 
the  names  of  his  college  mates  we  find  Theo- 
dore Dehon,  afterwards  the  eloquent  Rector  in 
Channing's  native  town  for  two  years ;  James 
Jackson,  the  wise  and  beloved  Professor,  so 
well  remembered  by  many  living  graduates  for 
his  lectures  on  the  laws  of  health  ("Breakfast 
heartily,  dine  sparingly,  sup  lightly,  sleep  sound- 
ly," he  used  to  say,  and  ''  Never  go  to  bed  angry  " 
was  his  version  of  ''  Let  not  the  sun  go  down 
upon  your  wrath");  James  Kendall,  afterwards 
at  Plymouth,  the  venerable  ''  Kendall  Green," 
as  one  playfully  called  him;  John  Pickering, 
the  philologist;  Leonard  Woods  (President 
Woods  of  Brunswick)  ;  John  Collins  Warren 
and  Daniel  Appleton  White;  Washington  All- 
ston,  Joseph  Stevens  Buckminster,  Timothy 
Flint,  Charles  Lowell,  and  Lemuel  Shaw. 

With   such   spirits    as    these   we    can    safely 


64  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNIJSTG. 

suppose  young  Charming  seeking  and  finding, 
with  some  for  a  shorter  and  others  for  a  longer 
portion  of  his  college  life,  congenial  companion- 
ship. 

Among  his  classmates,  as  has  been  said,  were 
Judge  Story  and  Dr.  Tuckerman.  His  college 
companions  unite  in  their  testimony  to  the 
charm  which  the  mingled  animation  and  dig- 
nity of  his  demeanor  gave  him  for  his  fellow- 
students  ;  to  the  equal  heartiness  with  which  he 
entered  into  the  sports  and  studies  of  the  place ; 
his  superiority  in  general  literature,  composition, 
and  criticism ;  his  love  for  history  and  philoso- 
phy, and  the  chaste  eloquence  of  his  style. 
Judge  Story  speaks  enthusiastically  of  the  **  mel- 
lifluous "  tones  of  his  voice,  using  the  same 
expression  which  Dr.  Channing  tells  us  was 
applied  to  his  father's  style  and  manner  by 
Judge  Dawes.  Young  Channing  was  a  general 
favorite,  and  naturally  a  member  of  all  the  lead- 
ing societies,  not  only  the  Institute  of  1770,  the 
Adelphi,  and  the  Phi  Beta,  but  the  Hasty  Pud- 
ding Club,  and  even  into  the  Porcellian  he  was 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHA AWING.  6$ 

elected,  which  was  a  rival  and  at  times  almost  a 
foe  of  the  Hasty  Pudding,  the  one  representing 
an  aristocratic  and  the  other  a  democratic  ele- 
ment, but  of  the  former  he  could  not  have  con- 
tinued long  a  member. 

His  Favorite  Studies. — The  study  that  became 
more  and  more  a  favorite  passion  with  young 
Channing,  as  his  college  life  went,  on,  was  that  of 
moral  philosophy.  The  reading  of  the  Stoics 
no  doubt  revived  and  reinforced  the  impressions 
of  the  majesty  and  might  of  human  virtue,  of 
disinterested  rectitude,  and  the  sense  of  the  dig- 
nity and  divinity  of  all  goodness,  which  as  a 
boy  he  had  received  from  the  old  Stoic  of  his 
native  town.  Hutcheson  and  Ferguson  were 
the  two  English  writers  who  did  most  to  stir  up 
in  his  soul  that  sense  of  the  grandeur  of  man's 
nature  and  destiny  which  was  to  be  the  guiding 
and  inspiring  genius  of  his  hfe.  In  Ferguson's 
*'  History  of  Civil  Society,"  one  chapter  which 
perhaps  especially  attracted  and  impressed  him 
was  the  one  on  "  Moral  Sentiment,"  in  which 
5 


66  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

the  author  so  vigorously  combats  the  Utilitarian 
doctrine  in  morality,  and  in  which  occurs  this 
striking  illustration :  "  The  foreigner,  who  be- 
lieved that  Othello,  on  the  stage,  was  enraged 
for  the  loss  of  his  handkerchief,  was  not  more 
mistaken  than  the  reasoner  who  imputes  any 
of  the  more  vehement  passions  of  men  to  the 
impressions  of  mere  profit  or  loss." 

To  Hutcheson's  "System  of  Moral  Philoso- 
phy" young  Channing,  we  may  well  suppose, 
was  drawn,  not  merely  by  the  presentiment  of 
finding  his  instinctive  sentiments  echoed  and 
enforced,  but  also  by  the  lovely  character  and 
spirit  of  the  cheerful,  serene,  and  benevolent 
author,  so  happily  reflected  in  the  sentiments 
and  style  of  his  treatise.  That  glowing  image 
of  the  loveliness  of  virtue,  the  majesty  of  recti- 
tude, and  the  beauty  of  holiness,  which  he  caught 
from  a  glance  of  its  pages,  charmed  his  eye  and 
kindled  his  soul.  "  The  place  and  the  hour" 
(in  which  he  read  the  memorable  passages  in 
Hutcheson,  e.  g.  the  chapter  headed  "  Some 
affections    truly    disinterested ")    "  were,"    says 


WILLIAM  ELLERY   CHANNING.  6/ 

his  nephew,  "  always  sacred  in  his  memory, 
and  he  frequently  referred  to  them  with  grate- 
ful awe.  It  seemed  to  him  that  he  then  passed 
through  a  new  spiritual  birth,  and  entered  upon 
the  day  of  eternal  peace  and  joy."  '^  In  his 
junior  year,"  says  the  same  biographer,  ''  he  had 
already  become  a  moral  and  social  reformer." 

But  he  had  also  begun  to  be  a  Transcenden- 
talist.  He  gained,  as  he  himself  says,  from  his 
philosophical  reading  of  this  period,  **  the  doc- 
trine of  ideas,  and  during  my  life,"  he  adds,  "  I 
•have  written  the  words  Love,  Right,  &c.  with  a 
capital.'* 

His  Interest  in  Politics. — Not  philosophy  alone, 
but  politics  also  (an  important  part  of  true  phi- 
losophy), engaged  Channing's  ardent  attention, 
and  both  studies  derived  an  added  attraction 
from  the  stir  which  the  position  of  France  was 
then  creating  throughout  the  world  and  especially 
in  America.  As  an  antidote  to  Paine's  "  Age  of 
Reason,"  the  College  Faculty  had  put  into  the 
hands  of  every  student  Watson's  ''  Apology  for 


68  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

the  Bible ;  "  and  as  a  talisman  against  the  dem- 
ocratic despotism  of  French  Jacobinism,  they 
needed  nothing  better  than  the  cockade,  which 
like  a  visible  watchword  cried,  "  Adams  and 
Liberty."  In  his  senior  year  Channing  drew 
up  an  address  of  admiration  and  allegiance  to 
President  John  Adams,  which  was  signed  by 
one  hundred  and  seventy  students  (nearly  the 
whole  number  then  in  college)  ;  and  at  his  grad- 
uation, when  the  first  part,  an  English  oration, 
was  assigned  him,  taking  for  his  theme  '*  The 
Present  Age,"  he  did  not  omit  the  part  of  Hamlet 
from  the  play  of  '*  Hamlet,"  though  the  Faculty 
had  forbidden  all  political  discussion.  How  he 
could  have  handled  the  Age  without  touching 
politics  pretty  strongly,  is  hard  to  see.  After 
a  somewhat  obstinate  contest  between  the  stu- 
dents and  the  government,  they  finally  yielded, 
at  least  so  far,  it  would  seem,  as  not  to  prohibit 
political  allusions ;  for  after  an  animated  and 
expHcit  freeing  of  his  mind  on  the  whole  subject, 
he  exclaimed,  with  a  significant  glance  toward 
the  Faculty,  "  But  that  I  am  forbid,  I  could  a 
tale  unfold,  would  harrow  up  your  souls !  " 


'.ST'  y 


Channinc.  the  Young  Student. 
After  a  Sketch  by  Malbone. 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  C MANNING.  6g 

It  was  probably  about  the  time  of  his  return 
home  from  Cambridge  after  his  graduation,  or 
possibly  during  some  one  of  the  vacations  a  Httle 
earher,  that  the  pencil  sketch  was  taken  by  his 
friend  Malbone,  which,  by  the  kindness  of  his 
son  WiUiam,  is  here  given.  It  shows  the  femi- 
nine tenderness,  together  with  the  manly  frank- 
ness and  generosity,  and  at  the  same  time  the 
moral  dignity,  sensibility,  and  courage,  which 
have  been  described  as  among  his  marked 
characteristics. 

What  shall  be  his  Profession.  —  And  now  came 
the  choice  of  a  profession.  It  is  noteworthy 
that  even  up  to  his  senior  year  the  "  little  minis- 
ter "  had  not  thought  specially  or  decidedly  of 
divinity.  Indeed,  he  had  declared  that  he  had 
"  no  inclination  "  for  either  of  the  three  profes- 
sions. And  when  he  did  begin  to  meditate 
choosincr  one  amongr  them,  medicine  seemed  to 
be  the  one  he  most  seriously  contemplated. 
But  as  Jean  Paul  says  of  Herder  and  Schiller, 
"  Both  intended  in  their  youth  to  be  surgeons, 


'JO  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

but  Providence  said, '  There  are  deeper  wounds 
than  bodily  ones,'  and  both  became  writers,"  so 
we  may  say  of  Channing,  who  became  eminently 
a  writer,  though  pre-eminently  more.  And  as 
to  law,  which  his  classmates  supposed  he  would 
choose  as  the  profession  for  which  he  was  so 
peculiarly  qualified,  there  was  a  higher  than  any 
earthly  cause,  which  claimed  his  powers  and  his 
passion,  —  the  great  strife  between  man  and  his 
Maker. 

Tutorship  at  Richmond.  —  Meanwhile,  almost 
as  soon  as  he  left  college,  Channing,  anxious 
to  gain  the  means  of  pursuing  his  theological 
studies,  eagerly  accepted  an  invitation  from  a 
Mr.  Randolph  of  Richmond  to  go  home  with 
him  and  be  tutor  to  his  son. 

Southern  Life.  —  Mr.  Randolph  was  United 
States  Marshal  for  Virginia,  and  his  house  was 
a  centre  of  elegant  hospitality,  and  Channing's 
letters  glow  with  enthusiasm  in  describing  his 
local  and  social  position,  —  the  glorious  nature 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  J I 

around  him,  and  the  charming  ease  and  freedom 
of  the  people's  manners.  "  Could  I  only  take 
from  the  Virginians,"  he  writes,  "  their  sensuality 
and  their  slaves,  I  should  think  them  the  greatest 
people  in  the  world."  Still,  in  the  Randolph 
family  and  elsewhere,  he  heard  slavery  freely 
lamented  and  condemned. 

Letters  to  Friends. — In  his  letters  of  this  period 
we  find  frequent  expressions  of  opinion  on  social 
and  political  topics,  not  surpassed  in  soundness 
by  the  convictions  of  his  mature  manhood. 
"  The  influence  of  slavery  on  the  whites  is  almost 
as  fatal  as  on  the  blacks  themselves."  *'  I  wish 
to  see  patriotism  exalted  into  a  moral  principle, 
not  a  branch  of  avarice.  I  wish  to  see  govern- 
ment administered  with  a  view  of  enlightening 
the  mind  and  dignifying  the  heart."  *'  A  soldier 
by  profession  is  too  apt  to  forget  that  he  is  a 
citizen!' 

Self-Culture.  —  We  find  him  at  this  time  assid- 
uously cultivating  that  fairness  of  mind,  that 
passion  for  even-handed   justice,  that   sense  of 


72  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

the  importance  of  deliberation  and  discrimina- 
tion, as  elements  of  a  determined  and  decided 
character,  —  that  moderation,  in  short,  in  the  best 
and  true  sense  of  the  word,  namely,  self-regulated 
action,  which  was  a  more  and  more  marked 
quality  of  his  spirit  to  the  last.  He  writes  to 
a  classmate,  ''  You  do  not  know  what  an  enthu- 
siast I  have  grown  for  liberty !'  He  himself 
underscores  the  word ;  he  had  discovered  that 
there  were  other  liberties  than  freedom  from 
the  tyranny  of  French  Jacobins  or  the  Corsican 
usurper. 

Results  of  his  Richmond  Life.  —  The  twenty 
months  Channing  spent  at  Richmond  —  his 
Thebaid  Lavollaie  calls  them  —  were  probably 
more  fruitful  in  consequences  to  his  whole  being, 
physical,  mental,  moral,  and  spiritual,  than  any 
other  equal  part  of  his  life.  In  the  first  place, 
they  undoubtedly  sowed  the  seeds  of  that  inva- 
lidism which  had  so  much  to  do  with  the  tone 
and  direction  of  his  mind  and  his  whole  inner 
and  outer  life  in  after  years.     For  the  sake  of 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  73 

improving  himself  as  much  as  possible  without 
neglecting  his  pupils,  he  stole  from  Nature  hours 
needed  for  sleep,  studying  often  till  daybreak; 
in  order  to  harden  himself  and  keep  the  body 
under,  "  he  accustomed  himself  to  sleep  on  the 
bare  floor,  and  would  spring  up  at  any  hour  of 
waking  to  walk  about  in  the  cold."  On  the  same 
principle  he  practised  a  low  diet,  and,  in  order 
to  save  all  he  could  for  his  mother,  he  stinted 
himself  in  clothing,  so  much  so  as  not  only  to 
expose  himself  to  the  cold,  but  to  deprive  him- 
self at  times  of  cheerful  society.  No  wonder 
that  under  this  heroic  treatment,  this  low  living 
and  hard  study,  having  no  relaxation  save  in 
lonely  rambles  and  musings,  he  fell  into  a  morbid, 
sentimental  enthusiasm ;  that  mushig,  as  he  him- 
self tells  us,  wore  away  his  body  and  his  mind; 
that  "the  imagination  threatened  to  inflame 
the  passions,"  and  that  his  "whole  life"  there  was 
"  a  struggle  with  his  feelings."  "  Fortunately," 
says  Lavollaie,  "Channing  was  mastered  by 
t\vo  strong  reins,  —  the  taste  for  study,  and  the 
sense  of  duty,  vivified  by  the  love  of  God." 


74  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

Struggle  and  Triumph.  —  Manly,  indeed,  the 
struggle  was,  and  successful ;  although  at  first, 
from  the  stagnation  of  dreamy  reverie,  it  trans- 
ported him  beyond  what  his  friends  thought 
the  bounds  of  good  judgment.  It  was  natural 
enough  that  such  a  sudden  waking  as  he  himself 
describes  should  somewhat  dazzle  his  eyes.  The 
cool  reception  a  poem  of  sentiment  which  he  had 
wept  over  met  from  a  lady  to  whom  he  showed 
it,  and  whom  he  knew  to  be  a  person  of  true 
benevolence  and  active  sympathy,  led  him  in- 
stantly to  reflect  ''  that  there  was  no  moral 
merit  in  possessing  feeling,"  and  he  writes  to 
his  friend  this  confession :  ''  It  is  true  that  I  sit 
in  my  study  and  shed  tears  over  human  misery. 
I  weep  over  a  novel.  I  weep  over  a  tale  of 
human  woe.  But  do  I  ever  relieve  the  dis- 
tressed? Have  I  lightened  the  load  of  afflic- 
tion? My  cheeks  reddened  at  the  question; 
a  cloud  of  error  burst  from  my  mind.  I  found 
that  virtue  did  not  consist  in  feeling,  but  in 
acting  from  a  sense  of  duty'' 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  75 

Enthusiasm.  —  The  visions  of  the  perfectibiHty 
of  man  and  of  society  which  from  this  time 
animated  his  bosom,  drew  from  his  friends  on 
all  sides  the  most  earnest  cautions  and  remon- 
strances. And  well  might  it  seem  to  them  — 
for  example,  his  brother  Francis,  the  lawyer, 
and  his  cool  and  considerate  Grandfather  Ellery 
—  that  he  meditated  a  communistic  revolution. 
Indeed,  some  of  his  language  has  a  ring  like 
that  of  Shelley  himself,  and  especially  when  he 
winds  up  his  delineation  of  the  perfect  society : 
"We  should  sleep  securely;  we  should  live  long 
and  happily ;  and  perhaps,  like  old  Enoch,  when 
the  time  came,  be  translated  to  heaven." 

Christian  Aspiration.  —  But,  after  all,  Channing, 
in  principle  and  purpose,  in  idea  and  imagina- 
tion, was  right,  and  he  knew  he  was  right. 
Christ  had  come  to  organize  the  kingdom  of 
Heaven  on  earth.  Man  was  by  nature  capable 
of  becoming  a  subject  of  that  kingdom.  ''  Is 
there  a  man  so  hard  of  heart,"  he  asks,  "  that 
you  cannot  find  in  him  some  string  to  vibrate 


'je  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

to  the  touch  of  humanity?  .  .  .  Oh  no  !  he  bears 
a  spark  of  divinity  in  his  bosom,  and  it  is  Pro- 
methean fire  that  animates  his  clay." 

New  Birth.  —  Channing  himself,  indeed,  as- 
cribes to  this  period  '*  the  change  of  heart  which 
is  necessary  to  constitute  a  Christian."  In  one  of 
his  letters  he  says,  ""  I  have  now  solemnly  given 
myself  up  to  God."  And  the  *'  act  of  self-con- 
secration" has  been  sacredly  preserved,  but,  in 
the  words  of  his  nephew,  "  is  of  too  personal  a 
character  to  publish."  "  This  paper,"  he  adds, 
"  marks  the  transition  point  in  the  development 
of  his  character.  The  day-dreams  of  boyhood, 
the  hopes  of  youth,  the  longings  and  aspirations 
of  eighteen  years,  hke  morning  clouds,  condense 
and  fall  in  a  refreshing  rain  of  penitence." 
But  this  figure  would  be  hardly  complete  if  we 
failed  to  add  that  these  rains,  after  fulfilling 
their  office  of  quickening  all  human  and  Chris- 
tian graces  of  this  earthly  life,  reascended  to 
heaven  as  clouds  again,  to  catch  the  light  of 
the   sun  of  perfection    and    kindle   the   soul    of 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  77 

the  heaven-seeking    pilgrim  with    new  visions 
of  the  perfect  day. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  there  had  been, 
before  this,  an  hour  in  his  college  hfe  also,  from 
which  young  Channing  dated  "  a  new  spiritual 
birth."  And  at  a  later  period,  in  reply  to  an 
Orthodox  friend's  question,  he  said  the  whole 
of  his  life  had  been  a  process  of  conversion; 
to  which  the  other  rejoined  that  then  he  must 
have  been  born  regenerate^  for  he  was  certainly 
now  a  child  of  God.  To  which  Channing  would 
surely  have  replied,  had  the  conversation  contin- 
ued, that  of  course  he,  like  every  other  man,  was 
born  a  child  of  God.  But  the  simple  statement 
of  the  case  doubtless  is,  that  Channing  was  not 
only  born  again  this  once,  but  born  again  and 
again,  as  every  thoughtful  mind  and  tender 
heart  will  be  in  this  world  of  ever  new  mani- 
festations of  divine  truth  and  trials  of  human 
character. 

His  Theological  Attitude.  —  In  his  theology 
Channing  had  not   as   yet   extricated  his  mind 


78  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

from  the  errors  of  the  old  system,  the  doctrine 
of  **  the  vicarious  character  of  Christ,"  and  the 
necessity  of  "  relying  on  his  merits  for  pardon 
and  acceptance  with  God."  It  is  curious  in  this 
respect  to  compare  Channing's  development  with 
the  reverse  process  in  Chalmers,  who  actually 
wrote  in  one  of  his  early  diaries :  "  May  I  dread 
to  think  that  any  thing  but  goodness  can  rec- 
ommend me  to  the  Almighty !  " 

Channing  must  have  been  yet  in  his  emo- 
tional and  sentimental  period  when  he  could  read 
to  a  friend  with  tearful  admiration  the  account 
Edwards  gives  of  his  conversion.  How  differ- 
ent is  all  that  rapture  of  sweet  contemplation  in 
view  of  a  divine  glory  in  which  holiness  seems 
to  be  the  only  element,  and  humanity  is  left  out 
of  sight,  from  that  adoring  sense  of  the  moral 
perfection  of  the  righteous  and  loving  Father, 
the  very  source  and  soul  and  sum  of  disinterest- 
edness, which  in  Channing's  mature  thought 
was  God's  highest  glory,  and  which,  indeed, 
was  felt  to  be  such  in  that  hour  of  his  college 
experience,   regarded   by   himself    as   the   first 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  79 

memorable  awaking  of  his  soul  to  true  religion. 
At  Richmond,  indeed,  we  find  him,  during  a 
violent  transition  from  one  morbid  mood  to 
another,  confessing  the  "  depravity  and  rotten- 
ness "  of  his  heart;  but  this  language  seems  to 
have  been  a  remnant  of  the  traditional  mysti- 
cism which  clung  to  him  from  his  early  training, 
and  as  it  meets  us  on  the  first  pages  of  the 
book  of  his  life,  it  stands  in  dark  relief,  like 
those  dismal  stanzas  of  young  Bryant's,  which 
the  zeal  of  elder  orthodox  friends  prefixed  to 
that  serene  and  trustful  poem,  the  ''Thanatopsis," 
the  last  of  which  is,  — 

"  This  bitter  cup  at  first  was  given 
When  angry  justice  frowned  severe ; 
And  't  is  the  eternal  doom  of  Heaven 
That  man  should  view  the  grave  with  fear." 

Happily  Bryant  outgrew  such  erroneous  im- 
aginings, and  so  did  Channing,  and  this  was  no 
small  part  of  his  real  conversion. 

These  remnants  of  the  old  superstition  will, 
however,  fall  away  in  good  time.  Meanwhile  it 
is  clear  that  the  impression  he  had  received  in 


80  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING, 

his  very  boyhood  at  Newport  of  the  hollowness 
of  the  popular  rehgion  was  confirmed  in  these 
years  of  his  opening  manhood  by  his  Richmond 
experience.  More  and  more  his  eyes  were 
opened  to  the  wrong  done  to  humanity  by  the 
substitution  of  the  husks  of  form  and  formula 
for  the  living  bread  from  Heaven,  the  living 
Christ,  the  true  gospel,  the  good  news  of  the 
fatherhood  of  God  and  the  brotherhood  of  men. 
To  a  lively  and  thorough  conviction  of  this  real 
Christianity  and  its  saving  power  he  had  now 
come  through  great  tribulation. 

His  Return  Home.  —  In  the  summer  of  1800, 
after  a  miserable  and  sickening  voyage,  he 
returned  to  his  home  in  Newport,  changed  from 
a  buoyant  and  vigorous  youth  to  "  a  thin  and 
pallid  invalid."  Henceforth  the  only  elasticity 
left  him  —  but  what  a  treasure! — was  that  of 
a  spirit  eagerly  and  ardently  devoted  to  truth 
and  freedom  and  humanity,  of  a  hope  no  pains 
and  infirmities  of  the  flesh  could  extinguish,  an 
aspiration  which  cheered  advancing  age  with  a 
growing  presentiment  of  eternal  youth. 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  8 1 

Communion  with  Nature. —  At  home  again,  in 
the  absence  of  his  elder  brother,  who  had  re- 
moved to  Cambridge,  WiUiam  became  head  of 
the  household.  During  the  year  and  a  half  he 
spent  here,  pursuing  his  theological  studies, 
he  battled  bravely  with  the  tendency  to  exces- 
sive seriousness  and  severity,  partly  inherited, 
and  partly  aggravated  by  his  late  trials  and  by 
the  responsibility  of  his  present  position;  and 
now  again  he  found  in  his  favorite  communion 
with  nature  one  of  the  greatest  helps  toward 
the  recovery  of  a  cheerful  faith  and  a  complete 
self-mastery. 

Tribute  to  the  Beach.  —  At  this  time  it  was 
that  he  found  that  natural  oratory  which  he 
describes  in  his  Dedication  Sermon,  the  beach, 
of  which  he  says:  *' There  I  lifted  up  my  voice 
in  praise  amidst  the  tempest.  There,  softened 
by  beauty,  I  poured  out  my  thanksgiving  and 
contrite  confessions.  There,  in  reverential  sym- 
pathy with  the  mighty  power  around  me,  I  be- 
came conscious  of  power  within." 


82  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

Of  course  the  generally  so  fair  and  discrimi- 
nating Professor  Fisher,  in  his  recent  paper  on 
Dr.  Channing  in  the  International  Review,  does 
not  forget  this  piece  of  Channing's  autobiogra- 
phy, though  he  mentions  only^  in  referring  to  his 
communion  with  nature,  an  earlier  confession, 
and  says,  '*  He  would  stand  upon  the  beach  at 
Newport,  and  in  a  high  Byronic  mood,  long  to 
rush  to  the  embrace  of  the  waters,  whose  tumultu- 
ous heavings  harmonized  with  the  mood  of  his 
own  spirit ;  "  and  adds  the  remark,  *'  It  is  hard  to 
believe  that  these  maudlin  tempers  could  ever 
have  belonged  to  a  man  of  Channing's  sterHng 
sincerity." 

The  passage  to  which  the  reviewer  refers  is  in 
a  letter  written  just  after  Channing's  graduation, 
in  which  he  says :  "  Sometimes  I  compare  my 
fortune  to  the  billows  before  me.  I  extend  my 
arms  towards  them,  I  run  to  meet  them,  and  wish 
myself  buried  beneath  their  waters.  Sometimes 
my  whole  soul  ascends  to  the  God  of  nature, 
and  in  such  a  temple  I  cannot  but  be  devout." 

It  was  only  two  or  three  years  after  this  that 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  83 

he  found  in  the  same  mighty  ocean  not  an  ag- 
gravation, but  an  alleviation  of  inward  restless- 
ness, even  a  sense  of  deep  central  peace.  As 
he  himself,  in  a  letter  of  the  year  1821,  referring 
to  this  very  time  of  his  preparation  for  the  min- 
istry, writes  :  **  Then  I  spent  almost  whole  days 
on  the  seashore,  where  the  majesty  and  power  of 
Nature,  absorbing,  exalting,  and  transporting  me 
beyond  myself,  ministered  most  happily  to  the 
diseased  soidy 

Life  in  the  Library.  —  A  second  agent  in  his 
education  to  the  ministry  was  the  Redwood 
Library,  then  in  a  somewhat  deserted,  as  well 
as  disorderly  and  disfigured  condition,  from 
having  been  used  as  a  barrack  by  the  British, 
and  where  his  new  pastor,  Dr.  Patten,  Dr.  Stiles's 
successor,  was  now  librarian. 

Channing  and  Hopkins.  —  A  third,  and,  accord- 
ing to  his  own  account,  very  important  element 
in  Channing's  preparation  for  his  great  office, 
was  his  intercourse  with  Dr.  Hopkins.  It  was 
during   this    preparatory    period    of  study,    but 


84  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

whether  in  the  Newport  or  the  Cambridge  resi- 
dence is  not  certain,  he  once,  as  he  tells  us, 
preached  for  Dr.  Hopkins,  who  rewarded  his 
effort  with  an  approving  smile,  remarking,  in 
his  usual  quaint  way,  that  the  hat  was  not  yet 
finished  {mtdimng  the  science  of  religion),  and 
expressing  the  hope  that  he  would  live  to  com- 
plete it.  Channing  might  well  have  reflected 
that  Hopkins's  head  required  a  peculiar  shape  of 
theological  hat,  and  so  indeed  did  every  man's. 
Referring  to  this  occasion,  the  present  writer 
once  read  some  lines  at  a  gathering  of  the 
Channing  Conference,  which  he  ventures  here 
to  reprint :  — 

Would  I  could  sing  in  fitting  phrase 
A  song  of  the  past  and  the  future  days,  — 
Could  sing  how  this  hill-top  is  to  me 
A  hall  of  the  fathers  by  the  sea ; 
Could  sing  the  renown  of  saint  and  sage, 
Who  have  left  the  deathless  heritage 
Of  a  memory  bright  and  pure  and  fair, 
That  lights  the  sky  and  embalms  the  air, 
A  spirit  that  breathes  its  blessing  round, 
And  makes  this  hill  a  holy  ground. 

And  chiefly,  on  my  musing  eyes, 
Two  forms  in  memory's  light  arise  : 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  85 

A  stern  old  man  and  a  manly  youth, — 

One  in  the  burning  love  of  truth, 

One  in  the  spirit  that  yearned  to  free 

The  soul  from  sin's  captivity. 

At  the  sacred  desk  I  see  them  stand, 

The  youth  and  the  veteran,  hand  in  hand. 

And  now  the  elder  has  gone  his  way, 

Dawns  on  his  eyes  the  heavenly  day ; 

The  thoughtful  youth,  to  manhood  grown. 

Has  sent  through  the  land  and  the  world  a  tono 

That  thrills  with  a  power  of  voice  and  pen 

To  be  felt  more  and  more  in  the  souls  of  men. 

And  he  too  follows  to  the  land 

Where  dwell  the  spirits'  immortal  band ; 

And  the  youth  and  the  sire  there  once  more 

Join  hands  in  a  world  where  all  doubt  is  o'er, 

"Where  darkness  and  discord  for  ever  cease, 

And  hearts  are  united  in  Christ  and  peace. 

"  For  Christ  and  Peace  "  —  oh,  not  alone 
Are  the  words  inscribed  on  yon  corner-stone ; 
Immortal  spirits  gather  here. 
And  whisper  them  in  the  musing  ear ; 
The  breezes  catch  them  and  never  cease 
The  sweet  refrain:  For  Christ  and  Peace. 


Return  to  Cambridge. —  In  1801  Channing  ac- 
cepted the  place  of  Regent  (or  General  Proctor, 
as  the  officer  might  have  b^en  entitled  at  a  later 
day),  an  office  which,  requiring  only  a  general 
superintendence  of  his  hall  and  of  the  students 


S6  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

who  roomed  there,  gave  him  time  and  means  to 
continue  advantageously  his  professional  studies. 
He  now  began  the  habit,  which  he  never  relin- 
quished, of  reading  with  a  pen  in  his  hand.  He 
remembered,  probably.  Bacon's  dictum  :  '*  Read- 
ing makes  a  full  man,  writmg  mi  exact  man,  and 
speaking  a  ready  man."  He  had  already  for 
some  time  been  in  the  habit  of  committing  to 
paper  rules  for  his  guidance  in  the  formation 
of  opinion,  as  well  as  of  character.  (Are  they 
never  to  be  given  entire  to  the  world?)  "It  is 
easy  to  read,"  he  finds,  "  but  hard  to  think."  '*  I 
wish,"  he  writes,  "  to  have  a  few  important  truths 
impressed  deeply  on  my  mind,  rather  than  to 
be  lost  in  that  chaos  of  universal  knowledge 
which  has  hitherto  distracted  me.  —  Let  me  learn 
to  be  silent  on  subjects  where  I  am  ignorant.  — 
Every  sect  has  its  cant,  and  there  is  danger  of 
being  blindly  led  by  it." 

Church  Membership.  —  While  at  Cambridge 
Channing  became  a  member  of  Dr.  Holmes's 
church.     His  friends  could  not  tell  at  that  time 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  8/ 

whether  he  would  come  out  a  Hopkinsian  or  a 
moderate  Calvinist,  and  it  is  curious  that  the 
only  question  put  to  him  when  he  presented  his 
sermon  as  a  candidate  was,  whether  he  believed 
God  to  be  the  author  of  sin.  His  answer  is  not 
transmitted  to  us.  •  In  addition  to  the  favorite 
writers  in  philosophy  already  mentioned,  he 
now  read,  with  deep  admiration  of  their  piety, 
Law  and  Edwards.  But  from  the  contradictions 
of  the  Orthodox  theology  his  good  sense  and 
his  natural  religion^  his  passion  for  accuracy  of 
thought  and  for  unity  in  his  inner  being,  kept 
him  clear. 

His  first  Sermon  (excepting  perhaps  those  he 
gave  at  Newport  for  Dr.  Hopkins  and  Dr. 
Patten)  was  preached  at  Medford,  October  24, 
1802,  and  the  text  was,  "  Silver  and  gold  have  I 
none,  but  such  as  I  have  give  I  thee."  A  noble 
and  felicitous  inauguration  of  a  ministry  which 
was  to  *'  give  "  to  many  souls  the  power  Peter's 
word  of  faith  was  to  give  the  lame  body,  —  to 
"  rise  up  and  walk." 


88      .  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

His  brother  George,  in  his  "  Early  Recollec- 
tions," writes :  *'  Shortly  after  the  late  Dr.  Chan- 
ning  received  ecclesiastical  authority  to  preach 
as  a  candidate,  being  on  a  visit  to  Newport,  he 
was  invited  to  deliver  the  [preparatory]  lecture 
[in  Dr.  Patten's  church].  It  was  soon  noised 
about ;  and,  being  a  great  favorite  in  the  town, 
an  audience  greeted  him  such  as  had  never 
before  assembled  on  a  similar  occasion ;  and 
they  listened  with  evident  interest  to  the  ser- 
mon, said  to  be  his  first,  from  the  text.  Acts 
iii.  6,"  the  same  which  is  named  as  his  first 
when  preached  at  Medford. 

It  is  with  a  peculiar  reverence  one  takes  into 
his  hands  the  venerable  and  time-colored  manu- 
script of  Dr.  Channing's  first  sermon,  evidently 
retouched  once  and  again  by  his  careful  hand 
and  pruned  by  his  severe  taste,  and  showing 
already  many  of  the  traits  of  his  mature  thought 
and  sentiment  and  style.  According  to  the 
record  on  the  first  page,  it  was  first  preached  in 
1802  at  Federal  Street,  in  1803  at  Waltham,  in 
May  of  that  year  at  Dr.  Howard's  West  Boston 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  C MANNING.  89 

Church,  the  same  month  at  Lancaster,  in  April, 
1804,  again  at  Federal  Street  from  Galatians 
vi.  10,  *' As  we  have  therefore  opportunity,  let 
us  do  good  unto  all  men"  (omitting  "■  especially 
them  that  are  of  the  household  of  the  faith,"  — 
his  breadth  of  liberality  and  humanity  already 
showing  itself), —  in  May  of  that  year  at  Med- 
ford,  and  in  1808  again  at  Federal  Street. 

This  sermon,  beginning  in  what  would  now 
be  thought  a  commonplace  way,  as  it  goes  on 
becomes  singularly  impressive  by  what  might 
be  called  its  annulative  force,  the  steady  and 
onward  swell  of  the  tide  of  pure  and  natural 
and  healthful  thought  and  feeling  that  pulses 
through  its  pages.  It  illustrates  a  piece  of 
advice  which  its  author  once  gave  a  young 
sermon-writer,  —  to  write  with  fervor  and  fluency 
and  correct  with  coolness.  These  pages  show 
extreme  fastidiousness,  and  illustrate  the  labor 
by  which  Channing  achieved  his  pure  style; 
for  instance,  having  first  written,  "  The  most 
hardened  acknowledge  the  majesty  of  virtue, 
and  are  awed  in  Jier  presence^'  he  afterward 
strikes  out  the  Italic  clause. 


90  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

Here  are  some  short  specimens  which  remind 
one  of  the  author's  matured  style  and  sentiment : 
"Now  all  Christian  morals  may  be  reduced  to 
one  word,  love.  God  is  love.  Christ  is  love. 
The  gospel  is  an  exhibition  of  love,  and  its  end 
is  to  transform  men  into  love.  The  blood 
of  Christ  was  shed  to  make  this  native  plant 
of  heaven  flourish  on  earth.  ...  Ill  humor  is 
the  source  of  many  of  the  miseries  of  Hfe.  All 
the  tyrants  and  heroic  murderers  who  ever  lived 
have  never  produced,  in  all  their  wars  and 
ravages,  as  much  wretchedness  as  the  slow 
poison  of  fretfulness  and  the  sudden  bursts  of 
anger  in  social  intercourse.  .  .  .  Perhaps  Christ, 
when  on  earth,  won  the  hearts  of  publicans  and 
sinners  more  by  his  gentle  manners  and  offices 
of  kindness,  when  he  ate  and  drank  with  them, 
than  by  exhibiting  his  miracles.  Men  generally 
need  sympathy  more  than  silver  and  gold." 

A  classmate  records  in  his  journal  hearing 
Channing  give  this  sermon  at  Medford  in 
October,  1802.  Accordingly  the  impression  it 
made  led,  doubtless,  to  its  being  repeated  there 
a  year  or  two  after. 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  91 

Called  to  Federal  Street.  —  The  impression  he 
made  both  by  his  matter  and  his  manner  was 
such  that  two  Boston  societies,  the  one  in  Brattle 
Street  and  the  one  in  Federal  Street,  simultane- 
ously, in  December,  invited  him  to  the  pastorate. 
After  considerable  hesitation  he  decided  for 
Federal  Street,  as  being  the  "■  more  humble 
sphere,"  and  on  the  12th  of  February,  1803,  he 
formally  signified  to  that  church  his  acceptance 
of  their  call. 

Old  Mr.  Ellery's  Account  of  Him.  —  This  seems 
a  fitting  place  to  insert  a  passage  from  a  letter 
(never  before  printed)  from  William  Ellery,  the 
Signer,  to  his  son  then  at  school  in  Wickford. 
He  says:  ''Your  cousin  [properly  half-nephew?] 
William  Channing  is  here.  He  has  preached 
in  our  [Patten's]  and  Mr.  Hopkins's  Meeting 
to  universal  satisfaction.  You  cannot  conceive 
what  satisfaction  it  gives  me  to  see  my  grandson 
walking  in  the  truth  with  so  much  steadiness, 
and  with  so  much  eloquence  and  wisdom  dis- 
pensing the  light  of  the  gospel.     If  he  lives,  he 


92  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

will  be  a  burning  and  a  shining  light  He  is 
called  to  settle  at  Boston,  and  will  accept  the 
call." 

For  many  years  after  his  settlement  Mr. 
Channing  continued  to  correspond  with  his 
Grandfather  Ellery,  who,  a  French  biographer 
of  Channing  says,  "  was  less  accessible  to  enthu- 
siasm and  illusion,  less  an  innovator  in  religion, 
but  animated  in  an  equal  degree  with  a  large 
spirit  of  tolerance  and  love  of  liberty."  Many 
of  the  old  man's  letters  to  his  grandson  on  re- 
ligious doctrines  are  preserved  in  his  family. 
Some  specimens  are  given  in  William  H.  Chan- 
ning's  Memoir. 

The  Federal  Street  Church.  —  The  Federal  Street 
congregation  consisted  originally  of  a  company 
of  Scotch  Presbyterians  from  the  North  of 
Ireland,  who  worshipped  in  a  barn  in  Long 
Lane  (as  the  street  was  then  called)  from  1729 
to  1744,  when  they  built  a  wooden  meeting- 
house, a  copy  of  the  engraving  of  which  is  here 
given;     and,  the  convention  having  been  held 


The  Old  Federal  Street  Meeting-house  in  which  Channing  was 
ordained. 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING,  93 

there  in  1788,  at  which  Massachusetts  accepted 
the  Constitution,  gave  rise  to  the  name  of 
Federal  Street.  In  this  meeting-house  Chan- 
ning  was  ordained  and  continued  to  preach 
till  the  new  brick  one  took  its  place  in  1809. 
Douglass,  in  his  "  Summary,"  gives  a  singular 
inscription  taken  from  some  part  or  record  of 
the  old  church,  which  runs  as  follows  (appar- 
ently it  should  be  Latin  verse) :  — 

*'  Hujus  fundamen  saxum.     Domus  ilia  manebit. 
Labilis,  e  contra,  si  sit  arena,  peribit. 
Gloria  Christi  lex  nostra  suprema. 
Desiderio,  J.  M.,  hujus  Ecclesiae 
Christique,  Pastor." 

"  The  foundation  of  this  is  rock.     This  house  will  abide. 
On  the  contrary,  if  loose  sand,  it  will  perish. 
The  glory  of  Christ  our  highest  law. 
By  desire,  J.  M.,  Pastor  of  this  Church  and  of  Christ." ' 

The  Ordination  took  place  on  Wednesday, 
June  I,  1803.  The  services  were:  Prayer  by 
Rev.  Dr.  Holmes;  sermon  by  Rev.  Dr.  (then 
Prof.)  Tappan  of  Cambridge;  consecrating 
prayer  by  Rev.  Dr.  Osgood;  charge  by  Rev. 
Henry  Channing;  right  hand  of  fellowship  by 
Dr.  Tuckerman. 


94  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING, 

George  Ticknor,  then  a  boy,  has  recorded 
his  reminiscences  of  the  occasion,  especially  of 
the  impressive  presence  of  the  "  pale,  spiritual- 
looking  young  man,"  and  the  ''trembling  voice 
and  devout  air  "  with  which  he  recited  the  last 
stanza  of  the  closing  hymn :  — 

"  My  tongue  repeats  her  vows. 
Peace  to  this  sacred  house  ! 
For  here  my  friends  and  brethren  dwell." 

This  peculiar  and  indescribable  charm  in  his 
reading  of  hymns,  which  so  affected  the  boyish 
hearer  of  one  of  his  first  pulpit  utterances,  was 
a  universally  marked  characteristic  of  him  to 
the  last.  Referring  to  his  preaching  in  Provi- 
dence just  a  year  before  the  Sunday  of  his 
death,  Dr.  Hall  said :  "  His  first  accents  went  to 
our  hearts,  and  his  first  hymn  seemed  to  us  a 
service." 

First  Months  of  his  Ministry.  —  For  a  few  months 
after  his  settlement  Mr.  Channing  boarded  with 
a  parishioner.  In  these  first  months  he  had  to 
go  through  a  hard  struggle  with  the  depressing 


WILLIAM  ELLERY   CHANNING.  95  ^ 

influences  of  impaired  health  and  the  sense  of 
professional  responsibility.  The  question,  Who 
is  sufficient  for  these  things?  had  with  him  so 
oppressive  an  emphasis  that  at  times  he  was 
almost  ready  to  resign  his  office.  With  the 
exception  of  his  beloved  brother  Francis,  who 
was  a  guardian  angel  to  him  at  this  time,  he 
opened  his  mind  to  no  one  around  him.  His 
only  other  counsellors  were  himself  and  his 
Maker.  Indeed,  for  some  time,  much  of  the 
sadness  of  his  Richmond  life  seemed  to  be  re- 
newed. He  shunned  society,  begrudging  even 
to  the  family  in  which  he  lived  the  moments 
snatched  from  his  studies  and  musings  for  his 
short  and  scanty  meals.  He  dwelt  mostly  in 
the  mount  of  meditation  and  communion  with 
himself  and  with  God.  He  felt  that  what  he 
would  teach  and  persuade  others  to  be  he  must 
first  become  himself;  and  he  sought  and  strug- 
gled and  prayed  for  peace  and  purity  and 
perfectness  in  the  solitude  of  his  own  thoughts. 
Perhaps  it  would  have  been  better,  at  least 
happier,  for  him  at  this  time,  if,  instead  of  seek- 


96  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

ing  God  so  exclusively  in  solitude,  he  had  dwelt 
more  on  that  great  thought  of  St.  John,  "  God 
is  love.  ...  If  we  love  one  another,  God  dwelleth 
in  us  and  his  love  is  perfected  in  us."  But  it  is 
with  great  diffidence  we  venture  to  make  such 
a  suggestion.  Through  such  a  season  even  of 
morbid  self-inspection  the  Father  of  lights  was 
leading  this  son  of  his  toward  the  strength  of 
self-mastery  and  the  blessedness  of  self-sacrifice. 

Appearance  in  Society.  —  When  he  did  appear 
in  society  it  was  with  an  abstracted  air.  No 
one  felt  this  more  keenly  than  himself,  and  in 
his  diary  he  writes :  '*  Let  it  be  my  rule  never 
to  carry  a  subject  with  me  into  society." 

Brings  his  Mother  and  Family  to  Boston.  —  He 

had  for  some  time  had  a  standing  agreement 
with  his  brother  Francis,  that  one  or  the  other 
of  them  should  remain  single  ten  years  at  least, 
for  the  sake  of  helping  support  their  mother; 
and  now,  having  the  advantage  over  his  brother 
of  a  fixed  income,  he  wrote  to  his  mother  that 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  97 

the  society  had  provided  a  parsonage,  but  he 
had  no  one  to  keep  it  for  him,  and  added,  with 
a  pardonable  half-truth,  that  he  needed  sorely 
her  comfort  and  counsel  and  care.  Thus  he 
soon  had  the  whole  family  under  his  own  roof. 
At  the  same  time  he  actually  managed  to  pass 
himself  off  as  a  boarder  with  his  mother !  He 
took  the  smallest  room  in  the  house  for  his 
study,  and  slept  in  an  attic-chamber,  which  he 
shared  with  one  of  his  brothers,  to  whom  he 
said  one  morning  after  a  cold  night :  "  If  my 
bed  were  my  country,  I  should  be  somewhat 
like  Bonaparte  [still  dwelling  on  his  favorite 
theme].  I  have  no  control  except  over  the  part 
I  occupy;  the  instant  I  move,  frost  takes  pos- 
session." In  one  of  his  journals  of  this  date  is 
a  striking  passage,  which  those  who  knew  him 
familiarly  in  his  later  years  will  feel  had  come 
to  be  fulfilled  in  his  own  person :  "  In  the 
morning  when  I  see  any  of  my  friends  after  the 
night's  separation,  let  me  receive  them  as  new 
gifts  from  God,  as  raised  from  the  dead."  Many 
of  us  who  visited  him  in  his  last  years  will  recall 
7 


98  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

that  beautiful  and  radiant  greeting,  as  of  one 
coming  out  of  communion  with  Him,  of  whom 
the  hymn  so  sweetly  says :  — 

"His  morning  smiles  bless  all  the  day." 

And  yet,  at  the  period  of  which  we  are  now 
speaking,  according  to  his  biographer's  account, 
his  habitual  soberness  and  almost  sombreness 
of  manner  presented  a  striking  contrast  to  the 
prevaiHng  tone  of  the  family,  —  the  mother's 
sharp-witted,  plain-spoken  honesty,  and  '*  the 
hilarity  of  the  younger  brothers  and  sisters." 

Sedate  amidst  Household  Hilarity.  —  Those  of 
us  who  remember  the  Channing  brothers  in  their 
ripe  manhood.  Dr.  Walter  and  Professor  Ed- 
ward, and  the  venerable  and  vigorous  nonage- 
narian of  Milton,  still  living,  can  easily  imagine 
what  pronounced,  not  to  say  boisterous,  speci- 
mens of  outspoken  merriment  they  may  well 
have  been  in  their  boyhood's  home  at  Newport. 
Still,  with  all  his  seriousness  and  sadness,  he  was 
sweet  and  kindly;   but  how,  unless  more  than 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  99 

mortal,  could  one,  weighed  down  with  chronic 
debility,  keenly  sensitive  to  the  wants  and  woes 
of  a  world  groaning  for  the  peace-giving  light 
of  the  gospel,  yet  feeling  as  keenly  his  physi- 
cal inadequacy  to  the  accomphshment  of  the 
task  to  which  his  own  ideal  of  the  ministry 
called  him, — how  could  he,  though  ever  so 
well  convinced  (in  the  words  of  the  saintly 
Abbot)  that  "  cheerfulness  of  manners  is  not 
merely  an  amiable  grace,  but  a  Christian  duty," 
be  otherwise  than  sober  and  sedate?  And  yet, 
after  all,  may  we  not  well  believe  that  his 
*'  strength,"  too,  '*  was  made  perfect  in  weak- 
ness," and  that  what  he  may  have  lost  in  one 
kind  of  power  may  have  been  more  than  com- 
pensated by  a  deeper  energy  of  the  spirit? 

His  own  Idea  of  Happiness.  —  And  indeed,  in 
one  of  his  letters  of  this  first  decade  of  his 
ministry,  he  gives  an  admirably  discriminating 
definition  of  happiness.  He  describes  true  hap- 
piness as  "  the  uniform  serenity  of  a  well-gov- 
erned mind,  of  disciphned  affections,  of  a  heart 


100  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

steadily  devoted  to  objects  which  reason  and 
religion  recommend.  According  to  my  tame 
imagination,  Happiness  is  a  very  demure  lady, 
almost  as  prim  as  the  wives  of  the  Pilgrims  of 
New  England.  She  smiles  indeed,  most  benig- 
nantly,  but  very  seldom  laughs ;  she  may  sigh, 
but  very  seldom  sobs ;  the  tear  may  start  in 
her  eye,  the  tear  of  gratitude  and  of  sympathy, 
but  it  seldom  streams  down  the  cheek.  Her 
step  is  sometimes  quickened,  but  she  does  not 
waste  her  spirits  and  strength  in  violent  and 
unnatural  efforts.  She  cultivates  judgment  more 
than  fancy.  She  employs  imagination,  not  to 
dress  up  airy  fictions,  not  to  throw  a  false, 
short-lived  lustre  over  the  surrounding  scenery, 
but  to  array  in  splendor  distant  objects,  which 
reason  assures  her  are  most  glorious  and  excel- 
lent, but  which,  from  their  distance,  are  apt  to 
fade  away  before  the  eye,  and  to  lose  their 
power  over  the  heart." 

Did  not  Channing  himself  sit  for  this  picture? 
It  certainly  is,  in  many  respects,  a  striking  rep- 
resentation of  his  own  habitual  state,  as  well  as 
of  his  pulpit  style. 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  10 1 

And  it  is  interesting  at  this  point  to  recall 
the  fact  that  Bryant  (between  whom  and  Chan- 
ning  a  striking  parallel  might  be  run)  pubhshed 
not  long  after  this,  in  the  North  American,  an 
essay  on  the  "  Happy  Temperament,"  "  which  " 
(says  Curtis,  in  his  fine  oration  on  the  poet)  *'  is 
singularly  interesting  as  the  work  of  a  poet 
whose  strain  is  sometimes  called  remote  from 
human  sympathy,  and  a  man  who  was  so  often 
thought  to  be  cold  and  austere." 

Channing  as  Preacher  and  Pastor.  —  Coming  now 
to  speak  of  him  as  the  regular  minister  of  a  con- 
gregation, while  thankful  for  the  copious  extracts 
from  his  sermons  and  papers  which  his  biogra- 
pher has  given  us,  we  cannot  but  regret  that  we 
could  not  have  been  favored  with  a  complete 
and  chronological  series  of  his  pulpit  produc- 
tions, especially  as  we  are  expressly  assured 
that  "  his  discourses  were  his  best  diary,"  and 
that  *'  extracts  from  his  sermons  will  afford  us 
the  surest  guidance  "  to  his  "  spiritual  develop- 
ment," inasmuch  as  **  their  topics  and  the  treat- 


102  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING, 

ment  of  them  were  transcribed  from  the  records 
in  his  heart;  and  his  reproofs  and  appeals  to 
his  people  were  but  the  outward  symbol  of  his 
own  private  struggles." 

He  has  described  Himself.  —  If,  however,  the 
specimens  his  nephew  has  given  us  are  an  aver- 
age of  his  pulpit  work,  then,  though  indeed  it 
may  not  be  easy  for  us  to  realize  to  ourselves, 
except  from  our  own  remembrance  of  the  man 
and  his  manner,  the  profound  impression  such 
(in  the  best  sense)  homely  preaching  is  said  to 
have  created,  yet,  with  this  aid  of  memory,  we 
can  well  understand  how  Henry  Ware  should 
have  called  his  brother  Channing's  sermon  at 
the  ordination  of  John  Codman  a  description 
of  his  own  ministry.  For  instance,  he  says 
there :  "  In  preaching,  his  heart  should  disclose 
itself  in  his  sentiments,  manner,  and  style. 
Whilst  unfolding  the  divine  perfections,  he 
should  let  men  see  that  they  are  perfections  he 
himself  loves  and  adores.  In  enjoining  a  Chris- 
tian temper,  he  should  urge  it  as  one  who  has  felt 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  103 

its  beauty  and  power.  When  describing  the 
promises  of  the  gospel,  he  should  speak  with 
the  animation  of  a  holy  hope.  .  .  .  Let  me  here 
mention  that  it  is  highly  important  that  his 
manner  be  earnest."  And  here  he  elaborates  a 
distinction,  to  which  he  again  and  again  recurred 
in  charges  to  young  ministers :  "  By  this  I  do 
not  mean  a  noisy,  tumultuous  manner.  I  do  not 
mean  that  a  minister  must  have  lungs  of  iron 
and  a  voice  of  thunder.  Noise  and  earnestness 
are  very  different  things.  ...  In  the  still,  small 
voice  we  may  discern  the  language  of  the 
heart.  .  .  .  This  expression  of  the  heart  is  the 
perfection  of  ministerial  eloquence." 

And  this  was  Channing's.  And  yet,  strangely 
enough,  he  enters  in  his  diary  such  self-accusa- 
tions as  these :  '^  I  am  sensible  of  a  want  of  ten- 
derness in  my  preaching.  I  want  to  preach 
striking,  rather  than  melting  sermons."  The 
truthfulness  he  had  inherited  from  his  mother 
shows  itself  in  all  his  discourse.  He  charges 
his  brother  minister  not  to  try  to  show  feeling 
when   he  has  it  not.     Better  seem  cold  where 


104  WILLIAM  ELLERY  C MANNING. 

one  is  so.  He  wishes  he  had  the  modesty  of 
statement  for  which  Butler  (and  we  may  add 
Paley)  is  so  remarkable.  "  Some  people,"  he 
says,  "  rather  than  lose  a  good  metaphor,  or  a 
fine  sentence,  are  often  tempted  to  assert  what 
is  not  altogether  accurate ;  and  they  have  their 
reward.  They  astonish,  but  do  not  convince. 
They  strike,  but  do  not  keep  their  hold  of  the 
mind.  May  you  and  I  love  Truth  better  than 
Rhetoric  !  " 

Characteristics  of  his  Early  Sermons.  —  In  look- 
ing over  the  hundred  pages  of  pulpit  discourse 
opened  before  us  in  William  Channing's  first 
volume,  we  are  struck  with  the  absence,  not  of 
the  sensational  element  merely,  of  any  thing  like 
impassioned  and  startling  appeals,  but  of  all 
ornament,  of  any  thing  indicating  literary  fancy. 
There  is  not  a  quotation  from  any  book,  ex- 
cept the  Bible.  There  is  nowhere  any  heat, 
but  only  a  quiet  glow  of  faith  and  hope  and 
love,  —  love  of  God,  of  truth,  and  of  human 
souls.     No  lightning-flashes,  but   over   all   the 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING,  1 05 

broad  and  blessed  sunlight  of  a  holy  and  hu- 
mane spirit. 

Through  the  kindness  of  his  son,  a  few  ex- 
tracts are  here  given  from  his  first  (and  un- 
printed)  Thanksgiving  sermon,  from  i  Tim. 
vi.  17:  "Infinite  majesty  arrayed  in  the  mild 
lustre  ^of  benevolence.  .  .  .  The  ridiis  of  hu- 
man nattcre  exhibit  nothing  more  mournful  than 
a  soul  rich  in  experience  of  divine  mercy,  yet 
unimpressed  with  the  kindness  of  that  Being 
from  whom  all  its  blessings  are  derived.  .  .  . 
True  gratitude  is  not  a  selfish  affection.  It 
does  not  confine  itself  to  the  blessings  which  an 
individual  receives.  It  rejoices  in  all  the  good 
which  it  sees  God  communicate.  .  .  .  There  is 
nothing  in  us  to  recommend  us  to  God.  Sin- 
ners as  we  are,  we  are  vile  in  his  sight.  Our 
sins  cry  to  God  for  unmingled  vengeance.  We 
see  blessings  descending  from  infinite  heights 
on  beings  who  have  fallen  an  infinite  depth. 
.  .  .  God  increases  in  good.  His  system  is  a 
swelling  one.  All  evil  will  terminate  in  good, 
and   all   good   will   lead   to   greater.  .  .  .  God, 


I06  WILLIAM  ELLERY  C MANNING. 

as  it  were,  deprives  his  own  benevolence 
of  the  gratification  of  relieving  them  [hu- 
man sufferings],  that  he  may  grant  you  an 
opportunity  of  partaking  his  love  and  sharing 
his    blessings." 

Thus    far    only    negatively   Anti-Orthodox.  —  In 

these  sermons  of  the  first  decade,  before  the 
breaking  out  of  the  Unitarian  controversy, 
Channing  appears  chiefly  in  the  three  characters 
of  the  moral  and  spiritual  preacher,  the  faithful 
pastor,  and  the  patriotic  citizen.  In  theology, 
so  far  as  denominational  distinctions  are  con- 
cerned, his  views  seem  to  have  been  (to  use 
his  biographer's  image)  somewhat  in  a  *'  morning 
fog."  Probably  he  would  have  been  counted 
among  the  moderate  Orthodox^  that  is,  in  regard 
to  his  ideas  of  the  nature  and  work  of  Christ 
and  the  process  of  salvation.  Thus  he  says: 
"  A  change  of  heart  is  the  object  of  the  gospel. 
.  .  .  Every  man  must  be  new-born,  have  a  new 
heart."  He  will  have  "  meetings  to  pray  for 
the  Spirit.  .  .  .  Let  my  visits  be  ministerial  and 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANGING.  \OJ 

serious."  "  When  we  look  at  the  incarnate 
Saviour,"  he  says  in  a  sermon,  **  we  see  man  as 
he  was  before  the  fall." 

Arian  and  yet  Humanitarian.  —  And  yet,  though 
an  Arian,  in  his  idea  of  Jesus  as  having  come 
into  this  world  from  a  higher  state  of  being,  he 
was,  in  the  best  sense  of  the  word,  a  Humani- 
tarian, and  grew  more  and  more  such  with 
advancing  years.  Thus  he  says,  in  the  very 
sermon  just  quoted  :  "  The  incarnation  declares 
man  to  be  an  important  being  in  the  creation 
of  God.  It  declares  that  the  human  soul  is  a 
germ  in  which  are  wrapt  up  noble  powers, — 
an  inextinguishable  flame,  which  will  grow 
bright  and  clear  with  truth  and  goodness."  And 
it  must  be  remembered  that  even  in  the  days 
of  his  study  for  the  ministry,  he  had  stumbled 
at  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  and  of  prayer  to 
Jesus ;  and  in  these  first  ten  years  of  his  preach- 
ing his  theological  tendencies  showed  them- 
selves plainly  enough,  were  it  only  in  his  nega- 
tive attitude  with  regard  to  the  peculiarities  of 


I08  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

Calvinism,  and  his  positive  emphasizing  of  the 
spirit  and  precepts  of  Christ  as  the  saving  power 
of  the  gospel. 

His  very  first  sermon  struck  the  key-note 
of  his  system  of  religion.  It  was  a  mem- 
orable thought  for  that  day:  ''We  glorify 
God  when  by  imitation  we  display  his  char- 
acter." 

His  Anti-Calvinism  grows  more  pronounced. — 
But  here  and  there  come  out  positive  expres- 
sions of  repugnance  to  the  Calvinistic  system. 
He  insists  upon  the  figurative  nature  of  the  lan- 
guage about  Christ's  having  '^purchased  the 
Church  with  his  own  blood,"  and  makes  the 
striking  remark :  "  Christians  themselves  are 
said  to  be  bought,  and  not  their  salvation."  He 
pronounces  Christ's  Church  to  be  "  those  who 
truly  imbibe  his  spirit^  no  matter  by  what  name 
they  are  called."  In  one  of  his  letters  to  his 
Grandfather  Ellery,  with  whom  he  kept  up  for 
several  years  a  close  correspondence  on  theol- 
ogy, he  says :   "  You  complain  that  our  standard 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  1 09 

is  not  particular  enough.  But  this  is  the  distin- 
guishing feature  of  our  system  of  HberaHty."  In 
this  letter  (1807)  he  contents  himself  with  say- 
ing :  "  I  am  by  no  means  ready  to  say  that  no 
man  can  be  a  Christian  who  does  not  believe  in 
the  total  depravity  of  human  nature.  A  man 
may  doubt  on  that  subject,  yet  hate  sin."  He 
insists  on  the  distinction  between  the  saving 
truth  and  men's  ideas  of  that  truth,  —  between 
propositions  (as  we  might  say)  and  dispositions^ 
as  essential  quahfications  for  heaven.  But  in 
1812  he  expresses  his  horror  of  Calvinism  (that 
"vulgaire  et  efifrayante"  doctrine,  as  a  French 
biographer  quotes  him)  in  the  strongest  terms, 
saying,  if  it  is  indeed  true,  ''  then  existence  is 
a  curse  and  the  Creator  is —  O  my  merciful 
Father,  I  cannot  speak  of  Thee  in  the  language 
which  this  system  would  suggest !  " 

Dr.  FurnesS,  in  his  short  but  comprehensive 
*'  Life  of  Channing,"  published  in  William  Ware's 
collection,  speaking  of  the  early  years  of  his 
ministry,  says :  '*  There  is  much  that  awakens 
in  the  reader  a  melancholy  that  amounts  to  pain. 


no  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

His  ill-health,  his  profound  sensibility,  the  dim- 
ness of  his  views,  if  we  may  so  speak,  in  regard 
to  the  Orthodox  doctrines  of  the  day,  give  us 
the  impression  of  a  very  sad  and  struggling 
soul,  a  saint  walking  in  darkness.  Although 
tender  and  gentle,  yet  Dr.  Channing  was  then 
far  from  being  a  cheerful  man.  He  never  seems 
to  have  unbent.  We  have  no  record  of  seasons 
of  exhilaration  and  triumph.  He  was  apparently 
one  of  those  on  whom  falls  the  second  bene- 
diction of  Jesus.  He  was  of  those  that  mourn. 
Under  that  beatitude  is  he  to  be  ranked." 

Both  Mystic  and  Rationalist.  —  There  is  much 
truth  in  this,  though  somewhat  strongly  put. 
Undoubtedly  Channing  was  at  this  time  a  good 
deal  of  a  Mystic,  as  well  as  Rationalist :  we  can- 
not say,  more  of  the  former  than  of  the  latter; 
though  if  a  Mystic  means  one  who  recognizes 
and  reverences  a  background  of  mystery  to 
every  truth,  we  may  say  that  he  grew  more 
rather  than  less  a  Mystic,  as  he  emerged  more 
and  more  into  the  light  of  the  glorious  gospel. 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  \\\ 

At  the  same  time  the  importance  of  the  prac- 
tical as  well  as  rational  elements  of  religion 
never  took  a  lower  place,  but  rather  a  higher,  in 
his  growing  thought.  He  certainly  would  not 
have  scouted,  as  many  too  hastily  have,  the 
dictum  of  James  Foster,  that  "  where  the  mys- 
tery begins,  religion  ends,"  if  religion  means 
there,  not  reverence,  but  service.  For  one  great 
idea  with  him  at  this  time  was,  that  men  should 
leave  mysteries  with  God,  and  unite  their  strength 
upon  the  plain  ground  of  the  pure  and  philan- 
thropic precepts.  Until  the  famous  attack  upon 
the  Liberal  preachers  in  the  "  Panoplist "  of 
June,  1815,  opened  the  Unitarian  controversy, 
Channing  seems  to  have  held  the  ground  that 
the  articles  in  which  Christians  agree  are  more 
important  than  those  in  which  they  differ,  —  a 
position  which  perhaps  it  was  safe  enough  to 
assume  so  long  as,  by  keeping  unreasonable  and 
pernicious  dogmas  in  the  background,  men 
virtually  confessed  that  the  wholesome  ones 
were  the  essentials,  and  left  it  to  be  hoped  that 
the  old  errors  would  drop  and  die.     And  it  is 


112  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

admirable  to  see,  in  the  sermons  of  the  ante- 
controversial  period,  how  in  elaborating  his 
favorite  thought  that  **  Christianity  is  a  temper 
and  a  spirit  rather  than  a  doctrine,  it  is  the 
life  of  God  in  the  soul  of  man,"  he  nevertheless 
runs  his  plough  under  the  very  roots  of  the 
doctrines  which  dishonor  God.  And  in  the 
same  direction  his  noble  papers  in  the  "  Chris- 
tian Disciple,"  beginning  in  1813,  also  point,  in 
which  he  summons  men  to  use  reason  as  a 
religious  faculty,  and  to  make  religion  a  reason- 
able service ;  and  exposes  the  sophistry  of  those 
who  would  persuade  men  to  take  their  faith 
from  either  the  lear7zed  or  \h.Q  pious. 

The  "Christian  Disciple."  —  The  object  of  the 
periodical  just  referred  to,  the  *'  Christian  Disci- 
ple," is  happily  described  in  the  words  of  Chan- 
ning's  classmate,  Sidney  Willard :  *'  The  object 
of  its  projectors  was  to  publish  an  Evangelical 
work,  in  the  true  sense  of  the  term,  and  not  as 
claimed  by  a  sect,  and  no  otherwise  controver- 
sial than  it  might  be  made  so  by  the  assaults  of 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  1 13 

those  who  claimed  for  themselves  the  possession 
of  the  whole  gospel  truth '^ 

Opening  of  the  Unitarian  Controversy. —  Mean- 
while the  war  had  begun,  as,  indeed,  we  can 
hardly  see  how  it  could  longer  have  been  staved 
off,  when  there  were  men  like  Channing  about, 
uttering  such  insinuations  of  the  immorality  of 
the  Calvinistic  dogmas  of  total  depravity  and 
purchased  pardon,  and  contending  that  "  the 
great  controversies  in  the  Church  may  be  re- 
solved into  one  question,  —  Is  GOD,  INDEED, 
PERFECTLY  GOOD  ?  To  my  mind,  most  of  the 
prevalent  theories  of  religion  rest  on  the  suppo- 
sition that  he  is  not  good,  that  his  government 
is  dreadfully  severe,  and  that  it  is  the  greatest 
of  evils  to  receive  existence  from  his  hand." 

He  places  more  Emphasis,  as  yet,  on  "  Liberal " 
than  on  "Unitarian."  —  And  yet  SO  averse  was 
he  to  a  breach  in  the  Congregational  body 
that  his  defence  of  the  Liberal  party  against  the 
charges  of  the  "  Panoplist "  takes  almost  an 
8 


114  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

apologetic  tone.  The  dread  of  controversial 
bidlyiiig  (as  he  calls  it)  at  first  almost  repels 
him  to  the  opposite  extreme.  In  his  several 
letters  to  Dr.  Worcester  he  labors  to  show  that 
"  the  differences  between  Trinitarians  and  Uni- 
tarians are  very  often  verbal,"  the  former,  for 
instance,  maintaining  that  Jesus  was  personally 
united  with  God,  and  the  latter  that  he  was 
intimately  united ;  though  he  also  insists  that, 
"would  Trinitarians  tell  us  what  they  mean, 
their  system  would  generally  be  found  little  else 
than  a  mystical  form  of  the  Unitarian  doctrine." 
But  every  effort  which  such  a  mind  as  Chan- 
ning's  made  to  dispel  the  storm  only  hastened 
it ;  and  indeed  it  was  needed  to  clear  the  misty 
atmosphere.  . 

He  still  prefers  the  high  and  broad  spiritual  and 
practical  Ground.  —  Meanwhile,  how  little  to  his 
taste  theological  controversy  was,  is  shown  by 
the  fact  mentioned  by  his  nephew,  that  among 
all  the  sermons  of  this  period  not  a  single  con- 
troversial one  is  to  be  found.     The  chief  effect 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  I15 

on  him  of  the  intellectual  stir  of  the  times  seems 
to  have  been  to  give  a  fresh  vivacity  and  vigor 
to  the  tone  and  style  in  which  he  put  forth  his 
great  spiritual  and  practical  ideas  of  God  and 
man  and  Christ ;  whose  "  gospel "  (as  he  ex- 
presses it)  *'  may  be  said  to  be  a  revelation  of 
man  to  himself !'  The  only  disputed  doctrine 
on  which  he  dwells  much  is  one  which  he  re- 
'garded  as  rich  in  spiritual  and  practical  lessons, 
the  pre-existence  of  Jesus.  Several  eloquent 
pages  are  devoted  to  showing  how  this  would 
account  for  the  awe  he  inspired,  and  how  it 
exalts  our  sense  of  his  disinterestedness  and 
self-sacrifice. 

But  it  is  when  he  contemplates  the  coming 
of  this  holy  Mediator  in  the  spread  of  his  pure 
and  peaceful  principles  through  the  hearts  and 
homes,  the  souls  and  societies  of  men,  that  he 
breaks  forth  into  the  highest  strains  of  his 
eloquence,  transporting  our  thoughts  onward 
to  that  last  swan-song  of  his  life. 

"At  the  thought  of  this  reign  of  benevo- 
lence," he  exclaims  in  18 16,  *' the  whole  earth 


Il6  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

seems  to  me  to  burst  forth  into  rejoicing.  I 
see  the  arts  and  civilization  spreading  gladness 
over  deserted  regions  and  clothing  the  wilder- 
ness with  beauty.  Nations  united  in  a  league 
of  philanthropy  advance  with  constantly  accel- 
erating steps  in  knowledge  and  power.  I  see 
stupendous  plans  accomplished,  oceans  united, 
distant  regions  connected,  and  every  climate 
contributing  its  productions  and  treasures  to 
the  improvement  and  happiness  of  the  race. 
In  private  life  I  see  every  labor  lightened  by 
mutual  confidence  and  aid.  Indigence  is  un- 
known. Sickness  and  pain  are  mitigated,  and 
almost  disarmed  by  the  disinterestedness  of 
those  who  suffer  and  by  the  sympathy  which 
suffering  awakens.  Every  blessing  is  heightened 
and  diffused  by  participation.  Every  family, 
united,  peaceful,  and  knowing  no  contention 
but  for  pre-eminence  in  doing  good,  is  a  con- 
secrated and  happy  retreat,  the  image  of  heaven. 
The  necessary  ills  of  life  shrink  into  nothing. 
The  human  countenance  puts  on  a  new  and 
brighter   expression.     Human   nature,  with   its 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  C BANNING.  117 

selfishness,  loses  its  base  deformity,  and  is 
clothed  with  the  glory  of  God,  whose  designs 
it  embraces,  with  whose  spirit  it  is  imbued." 

Well  does  Dr.  Furness  say :  "  It  was  not  by 
doctrinal  preaching,  but  by  the  precepts  of  the 
New  Testament,  that  a  great  change  in  opinion 
was  wrought  in  New  England.  It  was  practical 
preaching  that  worked  a  doctrinal  change." 

Channing's  Idea  of  God's  TVord.  —  We  find 
Channing  himself  complaining,  toward  the  close 
of  this  second  period  of  his  ministry,  that  Uni- 
tarianism  "  has  suffered  from  a  too  exclusive 
application  of  its  advocates  to  Biblical  criticism 
and  theological  controversy;  from  a  too  partial 
culture  of  the  mind."  From  this  one-sided- 
ness,  however,  he  himself,  by  his  early  educa- 
tion, as  well  as  natural  openness  of  mind  and 
sensitiveness  of  spirit  to  the  stir  of  that  mem- 
orable age  of  the  world,  was  happily  saved. 
The  progress  of  philosophy  had  not,  indeed,  as 
yet  widened  the  great  issue  in  the  religious  con- 
troversy, from   the   question  what   God's    Word 


Il8  WILLIAM   ELLERY  CHANNING. 

says,  to  the  question  of  these  latter  days, 
where  that  Word  is  to  be  sought.  Practically, 
however.  Charming  himself  was  already,  for  one, 
answering,  Not  in  Scripture  alone,  but  in  Rea- 
son and  Nature.  It  is  remarkable,  indeed,  that 
one  who  from  his  earliest  years  was  so  imbued 
with  the  love  of  nature  in  his  discourses  has  so 
little  to  say,  philosophically  or  practically,  of 
that  expression  of  the  mind  of  God.  But  the 
truth  is,  he  is  so  full  of  nature's  influence  that, 
like  Jesus  himself,  he  speaks  out  of  it  rather 
than  about  it, 

Channing's  Patriotic  Efforts.  —  In  1 8 12,  Chan- 
ning,  after  some  hesitation,  decHned  the  Profes- 
sorship of  Sacred  Literature  at  Cambridge, 
afterward  accepted  by  Mr.  Norton ;  his  thoughts 
were  beginning  to  be  turned  into  various  direc- 
tions of  public  activity  by  the  critical  condition 
of  the  country.  Already  in  iSiowe  find  him, 
in  a  Fast  Day  sermon,  straining  every  nerve  to 
awaken  the  people  to  the  dangers  to  which  they, 
no  less  than  Europe,  are  exposed  by  the  am- 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  119 

bition  of  Bonaparte;  in  18 12  he  blushes ^  he 
mourns,  to  see  his  ''  country  taking  part  with  the 
oppressor  against  that  nation  which  has  alone 
arrested  his  proud  career  of  victory,  .  .  .  hnking 
itself  with  the  acknowledged  enemy  of  man- 
kind; "  in  1 8 14,  on  the  expectation  of  a  land- 
ing of  the  British  on  our  shores,  he  preaches, 
in  kindling  tones,  the  duty  of  manly  self-de- 
fence; and  the  same  year,  a  little  later,  at  the 
"solemn  festival"  of  thanksgiving  for  the  over- 
throw of  Bonaparte,  he  rises  to  such  a  pitch 
of  enthusiasm  as  he  exclaims,  ''  The  oppressor 
is  fallen  and  the  world  is  free,"  that  the  audience 
in  the  Stone  Chapel  break  out  into  cheers.  The 
whole  paragraph,  which  the  reader,  doubtless,  will 
be  glad  to  see,  is  as  follows :  ''  At  the  moment  of 
its  greatest  glory,  when  its  foundations  seemed 
to  the  gloomy  eye  of  fear  firm  as  the  hills, 
and  its  proud  towers  had  pierced  the  skies, 
the  lightnings  of  heaven  smote  it  and  it  fell ! 
Most  holy,  most  merciful  God !  thine  was  the 
work,  thine  be  the  glory !  Who  will  not  re- 
joice?    Who   will   not   catch    and    repeat    the 


120  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

acclamation  which  flies  through  so  many  re- 
gions,—  the  oppressor  is  fallen,  and  the  world 
is  free !  " 

On  the  same  occasion  Dr.  James  Freeman  of 
King's  Chapel  ''  read  selections  which  he  had 
made  from  the  Scriptures,  so  appropriate,"  says 
Samuel  J.  May,  "  that  it  seemed  as  if  he  had 
culled  the  history  of  the  modern  usurper  from 
the  pages  of  the  Bible.  When  he  came  to  the 
end,  I  well  remember,  he  raised  himself  to  his 
utmost  height,  stretched  out  his  arms,  as  if  in 
a  majestic  transport,  his  face  perfectly  radiant 
with  emotion,  his  eyes  flashing  unwonted  fire, 
and  shouted  at  the  top  of  his  voice,  — '  Babylon 
the  great  has  fallen !  Babylon  the  great  has 
fallen !  Hallelujah !  Praise  ye  the  Lord ! '  and 
then  burst  into  tears.  The  whole  audience  was 
carried  away  with  the  emotion.  Many  who 
were  sitting  sprang  to  their  feet,  and  the  loudest 
applause  was  hardly  suppressed." 

In  1816  Dr.  Channing  preached  the  great  ser- 
mon on  War  which  led  to  the  formation  of  the 
Massachusetts  Peace  Society. 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  12 1 

More  Bold  in  his  Unitarian  Affirmations.  —  Mean- 
while, in  18 13,  he  had  been  chosen  into  the  Corpo- 
ration of  Harvard  College,  and  was  also  an  active 
member  of  the  Bible  Society;  at  the  same  time, 
loyal  to  his  Unitarian  principles,  he  delivered,  in 
1 8 19,  the  mighty  blows  at  Trinitarianism  and 
Calvinism  in  his  Baltimore  sermon  at  the  ordi- 
nation of  Jared  Sparks,  —  a  sermon  which  set 
many  an  Orthodox  minister  to  thinking,  and 
turned,  we  are  told,  several  Methodist  preachers 
to  a  Liberal  faith ;  and  the  next  year  he  followed 
up  this  onslaught  with  the  famous  paper  on 
the  ''  Moral  Argument  against  Calvinism." 

Philanthropic  Labors.  —  All  this  time  he  had 
been  more  and  more  assiduous  in  his  pastoral 
duties  and  private  studies,  opening  his  mind  to 
the  new  Hghts  of  philosophy  and  inspirations  of 
poetry  that  came  from  England  and  from  Ger- 
many, educating  himself  to  be  more  and  more 
completely  a  teacher  of  his  people  and  a  spirit- 
ual benefactor  to  his  fellow-men.  In  the  educa- 
tion of  the  young  and  of  poor  children,  in  the 


122  WILLIAM  ELLERY  C MANNING. 

training  of  the  citizen,  we  find  him  foremost  in 
word  and  work.  In  an  address  of  1817,  before  a 
society  for  educating  indigent  boys,  are  many 
forcible  and  striking  thoughts.  He  says :  "  The 
higher  classes  of  society  have  a  tendency  to  intel- 
lectual imbecility,  and  need  to  be  replenished 
from  the  lower."  Again,  **  that  men  will  labor  less 
because  improved  in  understanding"  seems  to 
him  "  an  erroneous  notion.  The  great  motives 
to  steady  labor  lie  in  a  perception  of  the  future 
consequences  of  actions,  and  require  a  mind  of 
some  comprehension,  foresight,  and  calculation 
to  feel  their  force ;  and  hence  we  may  expect 
the  steadiest  labor  from  men  whose  faculties 
have  been  enlarged  by  education.  That  this  is 
precisely  the  fact  history  and  observation  prove. 
Slaves  and  savages,  who  receive  no  education, 
are  proverbially  indolent.  The  hardest  laborers 
in  this  country  are  the  husbandmen  of  New 
England,  —  a  class  of  men  who  have  been  formed 
under  institutions  peculiarly  fitted  to  expand 
and   invigorate  the    understanding." 

In   1 8 18  the  famous  Berry  Street  Vestry  was 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  1 23 

built  through  his  influence,  for  the  Sunday 
school  and  social  meetings  of  the  church ;  and 
there,  in  May,  1820,  he  opened  the  well-known 
Berry  Street  Conference  of  Liberal  Ministers. 
He  was  all  the  while  equally  attentive  to  the  in- 
terests of  the  University,  meditating  and  advis- 
ing upon  the  best  methods  of  study  and  of 
discipline.  In  182 1  he  gave  his  great  Dudleian 
Lecture  there  on  the  *'  Evidences  of  Revealed 
Religion,"  —  the  one  which  contains  that  strik- 
ing and  significant  thought,  that  "  all  minds  are 
of  one  family,"  —  only  another  form  of  his  great 
central  doctrine  of  the  worth  of  human  nature. 

Events  in  his  Domestic  Life.  —  This  variety  of 
occupation  in  secular  and  social  (all  of  them  to 
him,  indeed,  religious)  matters  could  not  fail  to 
give  to  his  pulpit  utterances  even  an  increasingly 
vigorous  and  manly  character,  while  there  must 
have  been  infused  into  them  a  new  tenderness 
and  reach  of  sympathy  by  the  profound  do- 
mestic experiences  of  joy  and  sorrow  through 
which,  during  these  years,  he  had  been  called  to 


124  WILLIAM  ELLERY  C MANNING. 

pass.  In  1 8  lO  his  beloved  brother  Francis  had 
died  on  a  voyage  undertaken  for  his  health; 
in  1 815  came  the  sad  news  of  the  death  of  his 
sister  Ann,  the  wife  of  Washington  Allston. 
Meanwhile,  in  18 14,  on  the  21st  of  July,  he  had 
been  married,  by  Rev.  Dr.  Gardner,  at  the  house 
of  his  mother-in-law,  to  his  cousin,  Ruth  Gibbs, 
: — an  event  which  brought  him  a  threefold 
blessing,  pecuHarly  and  providentially  seasona- 
ble just  then  to  his  condition  and  calling:  in  the 
first  place,  he  had  found  a  thoughtful,  amiable, 
placid  helpmeet  and  companion;  secondly,  one 
who  brought  with  her  a  property  which  set  his 
mind  free  from  anxiety  about  earthly  prospects ; 
and,  lastly,  this  union  led  to  his  subsequent 
enjoyment  of  that  summer  retreat  on  Rhode 
Island  which  ministered  so  graciously  to  his 
soul  and  body,  and  from  which,  in  the  last  ten 
or  twelve  years  of  his  life,  went  forth  a  good 
proportion  of  his  finest  utterances  on  the  great 
themes  of  the  day.  In  18 16  was  born  his  first 
child,  a  daughter,  who  lived  but  a  day;  in  1818 
a  second  daughter  came  to  take  the  place  of  the 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  125 

lost  one ;  and  a  few  years  after,  two  sons  were 
born,  one  of  whom  died  in  infancy;  the  other, 
born  in  1820,  still  lives.  Their  mother,  it  may 
as  appropriately  be  mentioned  here  as  elsewhere, 
lived  to  a  serene  and  hale  old  age,  retaining  to 
the  last  a  certain  youthfulness  in  her  venerable 
beauty,  and  in  her  charming  sympathy  with  the 
growing  life  around  her,  and  was  spared  to  grace 
the  circle  of  her  kindred  to  the  age  of  ninety. 

Devotion  to  his  Mother.  —  And  here,  too,  may 
be  said  what  remains  to  be  told  in  this  brief 
story,  of  Dr.  Channing's  mother.  Soon  after 
his  settlement,  he  had,  as  has  already  been  men- 
tioned, coaxed  her  by  an  innocent  half-guile,  to 
come  and  keep  his  house  in  Boston,  and  gradu- 
ally gathered  the  whole  family  under  his  roof. 
But  after  his  marriage  he  procured  for  her  a 
separate  house ;  still,  however,  seeing  her  daily 
and  almost  as  much  as  if  they  had  continued 
within  the  same  walls,  and  cherishing  for  her, 
through  the  remaining  years  of  her  life,  the  love 
and  veneration  of  a  dutiful  and  affectionate  child. 


126  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING, 

She  was  ever  in  his  earhest  morning  and  his 
latest  evening  thoughts.  What  changes  had 
she  Hved  to  see  in  the  history  of  her  house- 
hold !  Truly  her  children  had  risen  up  to  call 
her  blessed !  She  lived  into  the  culminating 
years  of  her  most  distinguished  son's  fame  as  a 
preacher  and  an  author,  and  on  the  25th  of  May, 
1834,  at  the  age  of  eighty- two,  she  passed  on, 
"  full  of  years  and  honors,  after  a  favored  life, 
a  venerable  age,  and  a  larger  experience  of 
happiness  than  falls  to  the  lot  of  most  human 
beings."  "  A  mother's  love,"  Dr.  Channing 
had  long  before  written,  "  is,  in  some  views, 
more  touching  than  any  other.  It  has  more  of 
the  immutableness  of  the  Divine  goodness." 

His  feelings  and  reflections  amidst  all  these 
domestic  experiences  colored  all  his  sermons 
and  services,  and  gave  them  the  quality  of  per- 
sonal communications  to  his  people.  The 
meaning  of  marriage,  birth,  death,  was  from 
time  to  time  recognized  in  the  most  tender 
and  home-coming  manner  in  his  pulpit  utter- 
ances. 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  127 

Journey  for  Health  through  New  England.  —  But 
the  manifold  intellectual  efforts  and  emotional 
excitements  of  this  period  had  proved  too  great 
a  strain  upon  his  frail  frame.  In  the  summer  of 
1 82 1,  in  hopes  of  recruiting  his  health,  he  made 
a  journey  through  the  north  of  New  England, 
during  which  his  love  of  nature  found  some  of 
its  finest  expressions.  Looking  at  the  moun- 
tains, he  says :  **  My  mind  seems  to  enlarge,  to 
swell  with  these  majestic  forms,  which  claim 
kindred  with  the  skies."  The  "  loveliness  and 
tenderness  of  beauty  .  .  .  exhausted  us,"  he  says, 
but  the  ''  grandeur  "  of  nature  "  gave  an  exult- 
ing, triumphant  feeling."  And  at  home  in  Oak- 
land, reviewing  the  journey,  he  writes:  "This 
magnificent  creation  has  been  to  me,  even  from 
my  boyhood,  a  principal  source  of  happiness; 
but  I  never  entered  into  its  spirit,  felt  its  power 
and  glories,  as  on  this  journey."  Thence  he 
turns  to  a  description  of  his  new  home  (''which 
I  am  weak  enough  to  think  the  best  home  on 
earth"):  '*  I  was  powerfully  reminded  of  the 
early  years  of  my  life,  when  these  shores  were 


128  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

my  favorite  and  almost  constant  haunts.  Then, 
before  I  knew  you,  I  had  not  '  found  rest  to  my 
soul,'  for  I  was  very  much  a  stranger  to  true 
religion.  My  spirit,  consumed  with  passionate 
fires,  thirsted  for  some  unknown  good,  and  my 
body  pined  away  to  a  shadow  under  the  work- 
ings of  a  troubled  mind.  [Then  follows  the 
sentence  already  quoted  on  page  83,  sub- 
stantially anticipating  that  eloquent  tribute  to 
the  Newport  Beach  in  his  Dedication  Ser- 
mon.] .  .  .  Thanks  to  God,  those  days  of 
tumult  are  past,  and  an  existence,  the  begin- 
ning of  which  is  still  a  mystery  to  me,  and 
which  was  wrapt  in  many  clouds,  has  opened 
into  blessings  which  I  would  not  have  dared  to 
anticipate." 

Voyage  to  Europe.  —  But  the  spring  of  1 822 
found  him  so  much  exhausted  that  he  was 
persuaded  to  try  a  voyage  to  Europe,  Orville 
Dewey  being  engaged  to  supply  his  place.  His 
reflections  at  sea  are  beautifully  expressive  of 
his  spirit.     The  sea-bird  cradled  in  the  tempest 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  129 

should  be  an  enviable  sight,  he  thinks,  to  souls 
*'torn  with  passion  or  remorse."  He  sees  no 
''rage"  in  the  ocean,  but  only  "spirit,  eager- 
ness." He  cannot  call  it  ''old ocean."  *'  Its  crest 
of  foam  is  not  hoariness,  but  the  breaking  forth 
of  life.  Ocean  is  perpetual  youth."  The  waves 
"do  not  seem  to  rise  by  a  foreign  impulse, 
but  spontaneously,  exultingly."  Again,  "they 
seemed,  as  they  rolled  in  regular  intervals  to- 
wards us,  like  the  gentle  heaving  of  a  sleeping  in- 
fant's breath.  I  did  not  feel  as  if  the  ocean  was 
exhausted  by  its  late  efforts,  but  as  if,  having 
accomplished  its  manifestations  of  awe-inspiring 
might,  it  was  now  executing  a  more  benignant 
ministry,  speaking  of  the  mercy  and  the  blissful 
rest  of  God  " 

Naturally  one  of  his  first  visits  in  Europe 
was  to  Windermere  and  to  Wordsworth;  with 
both  his  spirit  must  have  felt  a  rare  harmony. 
Both  the  philosophic  poet  and  the  poetic  phi- 
losopher, Wordsworth  and  Coleridge,  he  saw 
and  admired,  and  was  admired  by  them  in 
turn. 

9 


130  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

Sad  News  received  abroad.  —  But  this  absence 
from  home  was,  after  all,  an  exile,  and  was  made 
emphatically  such  by  two  heavy  afflictions,  the 
tidings  of  which  reached  him  at  Rome,  —  the 
death  of  an  infant  son,  and  that  of  Barbara, 
the  wife  of  his  brother  Walter.  In  his  outpour- 
ings of  sorrow  for  the  loss  of  his  child  occurs 
this  beautiful  passage :  "  When  I  think  of  my 
child,  of  its  beauty  and  sweetness,  of  the  ten- 
derness he  awakened,  of  the  spirit  which  God 
had  breathed  into  him,  and  which  had  begun 
to  develop  itself,  I  cannot  doubt  that  he  was 
the  care  of  God  in  death  as  in  life.  He  was 
made  for  God;  had  he  lived,  my  chief  duty 
would  have  been  to  direct  him  to  that  Infinite 
good,  —  and  has  he  not  now  gone  to  Him  from 
whom  he  came?  " 

Several  of  his  letters  from  abroad  constitute 
a  fine  treatise  on  the  early  training  of  children. 
He  dwells  particularly  on  his  favorite  tr^it  of 
truth.  "  It  is  better,"  he  says  (repeating  the 
very  counsel  he  gives  the  preacher),  ''that  they 
should  seem  cold  than  be  insincere.  .  .  .  Children 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  131 

must   never   be  deceived.  .  .  .  The  best  way  of 
teaching  children  love  is  by  example." 

Return  to  his  Pulpit.  —  Dr.  Channing  stood 
again  in  his  pulpit  in  August,  1823.  His  spirit 
had  been  greatly  refreshed  by  his  tour,  but  so 
little  was  he  physically  recruited  that  after  once 
pubHcly  greeting  his  people,  and  giving  an 
account  of  himself,  he  retired  to  his  island 
home,  and  from  there  wrote  to  his  society,  ask- 
ing an  assistant  in  the  place  of  Mr.  Dewey,  who 
had  been  called  to  New  Bedford.  The  society 
immediately  voted  to  give  him  a  colleague,  and 
Ezra  Stiles  Gannett  was  ordained  to  that  office 
in  the  spring  of  1824. 

Fortunate  in  his  Colleague.  —  Great  was  the 
relief  Dr.  Channing  gained  from  this  arrange- 
ment, by  the  help  of  which  he  was  enabled, 
notwithstanding  his  permanent  infirmity,  to  pro- 
duce sermons  and  essays  which  make  the  next 
ten  years  the  culminating  period  of  his  literary 
life. 


132  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

A  Sunday  Morning  in  Federal  Street.  —  Here  is 
a  glimpse  of  the  man  on  a  Sunday,  engaged  in 
what  Dewey  has  called  '*  the  greatest  action  of  his 
life."  We  borrow  a  passage  or  two  from  Wil- 
liam Channing's  glowing,  but  not  in  the  least 
exaggerated  description :  *'  There  is  no  excite- 
ment in  the  audience,  but  deep,  calm  expecta- 
tion. With  a  somewhat  rapid  and  an  elastic 
step,  a  person  small  in  stature,  thin  and  pale, 
and  carefully  enveloped,  ascends  the  pulpit- 
stair.  It  is  he.  For  a  moment  he  deliberately 
and  benignantly  surveys  the  large  congregation, 
as  if  drinking  in  the  influence  of  so  many  human 
beings;  and  then,  laying  aside  his  outer  gar- 
ments and  putting  on  the  black  silk  gown,  he 
selects  the  hymn  and  passage  from  Scripture, 
and,  taking  his  seat,  awaits  in  quiet  contem- 
plation the  time  for  commencing  the  service. 
What  impresses  us  now  in  his  appearance  is  its 
exceeding  delicacy,  refinement,  and  spiritualized 
beauty.  In  the  hollow  eye,  the  sunken  cheeks, 
and  the  deep  lines  around  the  mouth,  the 
chronic  debility  of  many  years  has  left  an  in- 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  1 33 

efifaceable  impress.  But  on  the  polished  brow, 
with  its  rounded  temples,  shadowed  by  one  fall- 
ing lock,  and  on  the  beaming  countenance, 
there  hovers  a  serenity  which  seems  to  brighten 
the  whole  head  with  a  halo."  One  more  elo- 
quent passage  we  quote  upon  the  preacher's 
manner :  "  There  are  no  expletives,  no  fulmina- 
tions,  no  fanatical  outpourings.  But  the  small 
figure  dilates,  —  the  luminous  gray  eye  now 
flashes  with  indignation,  now  softens  in  pity,  — 
and  the  outstretched  arm  and  clenched  hand  are 
lifted  in  sign  of  protest  and  warning,  as  the 
wrongs  which  man  inflicts  on  man  are  presented 
with  brief,  but  glowing  outlines.  .  .  .  Sin  and 
degradation  are  made  to  appear  unspeakably 
mournful  when  measured  by  the  majestic  in- 
nate powers,  the  celestial  destiny  appointed  to 
the  most  debased;  every  spirit  becomes  ven- 
erable to  us,  as  heir  of  God  and  co-heir  of 
Christ,  as  the  once  lost  but  now  found,  the 
prodigal  yet  dearly  loved  child  of  the  Heavenly 
Father." 


134  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

Channing  an  Author.  —  It  was  now  that  Dr. 
Channing  established  his  Hterary  fame,  and  be- 
came, as  he  says,  by  accident  an  author.  The 
papers  which  first  made  him  widely  known  to 
the  general  public  as  a  writer,  independently  of 
his  theological  position,  date  from  this  period. 
Not  that  he  ever  forgot  or  lost  sight  of  his 
Unitarian  mission  and  allegiance  in  the  most 
secular  of  his  works.  Upon  his  Unitm'ian  con- 
victions (in  the  best  and  full  sense  of  the 
word)  they  were  all  grounded,  out  of  it  they 
all  grew. 

The  Liberal  Preachers  and  Organs  in  Boston  and 
elsewhere.  —  Unitarianism  had  now  gained  a  local 
habitation  and  a  name.  Boston  and  Cambridge 
were  Unitarian.  What  had  been  whispered  in  the 
ear  was  now  proclaimed  from  the  house-tops,  — 
from  the  bells  in  the  steeples.  The  new  doctrine 
(new  because  a  revival  of  the  old)  had  its 
organs,  its  mouthpieces,  its  living  expounders 
and  examples.  "  The  times,"  says  Channing 
himself  in  reverting  to  that  period,  "  demanded 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  135 

that  a  voice  of  strength  and  courage  should  be 
Hfted  up,  and  I  rejoice  that  I  was  found  among 
those  by  whom  it  was  uttered,  and  sent  far  and 
wide."  There  were  Ware  and  Norton  at  Cam- 
bridge, Buckminster,  Channing,  and  Thacher  in 
Boston,  Dewey  at  New  Bedford,  Bancroft  at 
Worcester,  Sparks  in  Baltimore,  and  Furness  in 
Philadelphia,  —  a  noble  company! 

In  the  charge  to  his  colleague  in  1809,  Dr. 
Freeman  said,  in  King's  Chapel :  **  The  young 
ministers  with  whom  you  will  have  the  longest 
intercourse  are  not  only  adorned  with  brilliant 
talents,  but  blessed  with  candid  hearts.  I  advise 
you  to  cultivate  their  friendship.  Conversation 
with  them  will  be  the  source  of  mutual  improve- 
ment. Their  learning,  taste,  and  eloquence  will 
excite  your  emulation ;  and  as  I  am  persuaded 
that  both  you  and  they  have  honorable  minds, 
you  will  never  be  jealous  of  each  other's  success. 
From  the  combined  efforts  of  you  and  them,  I 
expect  to  see  the  new  era  of  preaching  which 
has  already  commenced  become  still  more 
splendid,  —  an  era  in  which  the  ministers  of  this 


136  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

town  will  rival  the  solidity  of  the  English  and 
the  eloquence  of  the  French  divines." 

The  "Examiner"  Articles.  —  Meanwhile  the  Uni- 
tarian banner  had  been  hung  out:  the  "Chris- 
tian Register"  had  been  established  in  1821; 
the  "  Christian  Disciple  "  was  succeeded  by  the 
"Christian  Examiner"  in  1825,  and  in  the  last- 
named  periodical  appeared  in  quick  succession 
the  celebrated  articles  (which  it  sounds  strange 
to  hear  William  Channing  call  "h\sty  effusions") 
on  Milton  (1826);  on  Bonaparte  (1827-28); 
and  on  Fenelon  (1829),  —  in  all  of  which  his 
reverence  for  humanity,  his  conviction  of  the 
sacredness  of  human  hfe  and  the  divinity  of 
the  human  soul,  and  of  the  rights  and  duties 
of  human  reason,  are  affirmed  and  reaffirmed. 
In  the  paper  on  Fenelon,  in  which,  as  his 
nephew  says,  with  "  countless  little  strokes  and 
touches  ...  he  sketched  his  own  likeness  with 
a  fidelity  which  no  second  hand  will  ever  rival, 
and  the  almost  angelic  idea  of  piety  there  given 
was  an  unconscious  portrait  of  the  beauty  of 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  C MANNING.  137 

his  own  holiness,"  at  the  same  time,  with  faithful 
discrimination,  he  exposes  the  saintly  man's 
error  and  delusion  respecting  the  self-sacrifice 
required  of  Christians,  —  eloquently  maintaining 
that  so  far  from  sacrificing  reason  to  faith,  we 
are  divinely  required  to  reverence  reason  as  an 
inner  revelation  of  God,  as  the  image  of  God  in 
the  soul.  And  in  a  note  in  his  handwriting 
found  between  the  leaves  of  a  volume  of  Fene- 
lon.  Dr.  Channing,  after  quoting  the  words  we 
are  to  give  tip  all  to  God,  says :  ''  But  God  is  the 
Ideal,  the  Perfect,  and  the  spring  of  Perfection ; 
his  will  is  Himself,  and  this  will  is  our  Perfec- 
tion ;  "  and  further  on,  in  rebuke  of  the  narrow 
notions  respecting  God's  glory,  he  says :  "  His 
will  is  entirely  disinterested,  without  the  least 
self-reference.  In  sacrificing  our  wills  to  his, 
we  choose  the  perfection  of  all  souls,  as  He 
chooses  it,  for  their  own  sakes." 

Channing's  Great  Sermons.  —  The  ten  years 
following  and  including  the  ordination  of  his 
colleague   were    also    the    birthtime    of    those 


138  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

great  occasional  sermons  in  which  Dr.  Chan- 
ning's  master-ideas  found  their  finest  and  most 
forcible  expression,  —  the  idea  of  the  modern 
ministry,  set  forth  at  the  ordination  of  Mr.  Gan- 
nett in  1824,  as  demanding  an  enlightened,  ear- 
nest, inquiring,  and  reforming  spirit;  the  idea  of 
the  peculiar  and  superior  tendency  of  the  Unita- 
rian faith  to  produce  piety  in  its  true  subjects, 
preached  at  the  New  York  dedication  in  1826 
(the  occasion  made  so  memorable,  and  to  the 
Orthodox  so  offensive  by  the  startling  and  ter- 
rific image  of  the  *' Central  Gallows.");  the 
idea  of  power  in  the  preacher,  discoursed  upon 
at  the  dedication  of  Divinity  Hall  the  same 
year;  the  idea  of  likeness  to  God,  presented  at 
Mr.  Farley's  ordination,  closing  with  the  noble 
paragraph :  *'  It  may  be  said  that  I  dream,  that 
I  people  the  world  with  the  creatures  of  my 
lonely  imagination ;  "  that  of  the  purpose  of 
Christ's  religion  to  produce  a  healthful  and 
manly  virtue,  urged  at  Mr.  Motte's  ordination, 
—  both  in  1828;  and  the  idea  of  human  free- 
dom, so  eloquently  expounded  in  the  Election 
Sermon  of  1830. 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  139 

Journey  for  Health  to  the  "West  Indies,  1830.  — 

This  was  the  year  in  which  Garrison  was  pre- 
paring to  strike  his  first  blow  at  American 
slavery,  and  this  was  the  year  in  which  Chan- 
ning  started  for  the  West  Indies,  to  recruit  the 
strength  which  he  was,  on  his  return,  to  devote 
so  largely  to  the  very  cause  of  human  rights 
and  human  freedom  which  the  "  Liberator,"  in 
a  less  quiet,  but  not  more  sincere  and  steadfast 
way,  was  spending  his  marvellous  energies, 
and  to  see  with  his  own  eyes  more  fully  what 
he  had  early  felt  at  Richmond,  the  magnitude  of 
the  evil  which  was  eating  at  the  heart  of  the 
republic. 

Gradual  Withdrawal  from  Parish  to  Public 
Labors.  —  Channing  had  come  to  feel  that  he 
could  no  longer  fairly  combine  an  honest  and 
hearty  discharge  of  pulpit  and  parish  duties 
with  the  fulfilment  of  that  larger  mission  of 
humanity  to  which  his  observation  and  studies 
and  sympathies  all  plainly  pointed  out  that 
Divine   Providence   was   urging   him;    and    so, 


140  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

gradually,  year  by  year,  he  sought  to  loosen, 
by  insisting  on  successive  reductions  of  his 
salary,  the  metallic  bonds  (so  to  speak)  which 
held  him  to  his  pulpit.  But  it  was  not  till  after 
more  than  ten  years  of  friendly  strife  between 
pastor  and  people  (not  indeed  till  his  earthly 
service  was  wellnigh  ended)  that  he  could  suc- 
ceed in  securing  any  thing  like  the  release  he 
contemplated.  For  the  last  ten  years  of  his  life 
he  used  to  go  down  early  in  the  summer  to  his 
island  retreat,  returning  late  in  autumn  to  give 
his  annual  message  from  the  Spirit  to  his  Bos- 
ton people,  and  occasionally  a  set  sermon,  but 
for  the  most  part  saving  his  strength  to  devote 
it  to  the  great  public  causes  of  enlightenment 
and  emancipation  which  now  claimed  his  best 
powers. 

Influence  on  the  Philanthropic  Specialists  of  the 
Day.  —  Henceforth  all  the  leaders  in  the  various 
departments  of  the  service  of  humanity  found 
in  him  a  wise  and  wary,  but  firm  and  fervent 
friend    and    counsellor.       Joseph    Tuckerman, 


WILLIAM  ELLERY   CHANNING.  1 41 

Horace  Mann,  Charles  Follen,  Harriet  Marti- 
neau,  Samuel  J.  May,  Bronson  Alcott,  —  all 
looked  to  Channing  as  one  of  whose  final  and 
full  sympathy  they  were  certain,  because  they 
felt  sure  that  he  was  governed  by  a  spirit  of 
even-handed  justice,  and  that  that  justice  was 
but  another  name  for  humanity.  They  felt  that 
the  more  slowly  and  carefully  he  might  come  to 
the  support  of  their  objects,  that  support  would 
be  all  the  more  precious  because  all  the  more 
profound.  His  was  that  "  charity  "  which  "  re- 
joiceth  in  the  truth." 

Mrs.  Chapman's  Calumny  refuted.  —  It  would  be 
hard  to  find,  in  the  literature  of  misrepresen- 
tation, a  more  glaring  instance  of  what  may 
be  called  flouting  facts  in  the  face  than  that 
exhibited  by  Mrs.  Chapman,  in  her  biography 
of  Harriet  Martineau,  when  she  comes  to  speak 
of  Dr.  Channing's  part  in  the  antislavery  con- 
flict of  New  England.  It  was  not  strange  that 
during  the  heat  of  the  contest  men  in  the  van- 
guard and  forlorn  hope  of  the  abolition  party, 


142  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

almost  compelled  to  see  only  one  object,  and  to 
feel  that  all  who  were  not  with  them  were  against 
them,  should,  in  their  impatience  with  the  giant 
iniquity  of  the  land,  fail  to  do  justice  to  good 
men  who,  feeling  the  evil  as  much  as  they  did, 
could  not  act  with  them  in  their  precise  way ;  and 
therefore  we  are  not  astonished  that  even  Chan- 
ning  should,  at  that  day,  have  been  regarded 
by  many  as  a  hindrance  and  a  hurt  to  the  cause 
of  emancipation :  but  that  now,  at  a  distance  of 
nearly  half  a  century  from  the  struggle,  when 
we  can  look  back  upon  it  with  comparative 
calmness,  especially  when  we  have  Channing's 
entire  earthly  record  closed  to  contemplate, 
any  one  should  be  able  to  sit  down  and  coolly 
pen  such  a  tissue  of  falsifications  as  is  con- 
tained in  the  following  paragraph  would  seem 
almost  inconceivable :  — 

"  Dr.  Channing,  between  whom  and  Harriet 
Martineau  a  true  friendship  subsisted  to  the  day 
of  his  death,  was  a  good  man,  but  not  in  any 
sense  a  great  one.  With  benevolent  intentions, 
he  could  not  greatly  help  the  nineteenth  cen- 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  1 43 

tury,  for  he  knew  very  little  about  it,  or,  indeed, 
of  any  other.  He  had  neither  insight,  courage, 
nor  firmness.  In  his  own  church  had  sprung 
up  a  vigorous  opposition  to  slavery,  which  he 
innocently,  in  so  far  as  ignorantly,  used  the 
little  strength  he  had  to  stay.  He  was  touched 
by  Brougham's  eloquent  denial  of  the  right  of 
property  in  man,  and  he  adopted  the  idea  as  a 
theme :  but  he  dreaded  any  one  who  claimed,  on 
behalf  of  the  slaves,  that  their  masters  should 
instantly  renounce  that  right  of  ownership ;  he 
was  terror-stricken  at  the  idea  of  calling  on  the 
whole  American  people  to  take  counsel  on  so 
difficult  and  delicate  a  matter  in  antislavery 
associations;  and,  above  all,  he  deprecated  the 
admission  of  the  colored  race  to  our  ranks.  He 
had  been  selected  by  a  set  of  money-making 
men  as  their  representative  for  piety,  as  Edward 
Everett  was  their  representative  gentleman  and 
scholar,  Judge  Story  their  representative  gentle- 
man, jurist,  and  companion  in  social  life,  and 
Daniel  Webster  their  representative  statesman 
and  advocate,  looking  after  their  business  inter- 


144  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

ests  in  Congress."  —  Memorials  of  Harriet  Mar- 
tineaic,  Vol.  II.  p.  272. 

Could  any  thing  well  be  further  from  the 
truth  than  this  picture  of  one  whose  whole  life, 
and  pre-eminently  his  bearing  through  those 
last  ten  years  of  his  life  which  covered  the 
beginnings  of  the  antislavery  movement  in  New 
England,  shows  him  to  have  been  so  true  a  fol- 
lower of  that  very  Jesus,  whom  the  Abolition- 
ists themselves  appealed  to,  who  was  at  once  the 
Lion  of  the  tribe  of  Judah,  and  the  Lamb  of 
God,  and  who  enjoined  upon  his  disciples  to  be 
wise  as  serpents  and  harmless  as  doves?  What 
a  far-fetched  idea  to  seek  for  the  origin  of  Chan- 
ning's  determination  to  fight  against  slavery  in 
the  example  of  Brougham  and  of  England ! 
What  an  inversion  of  the  truth  to  represent  him 
as  holding  back  his  own  parishioners  from  ex- 
cessive zeal  in  the  cause  of  the  slave !  What  a 
gratuitous  insinuation,  of  such  a  soul's  having 
been  held  back  from  the  path  of  truth  and  duty 
by  the  fear  of  man,  the  love  of  popularity,  or 
the  overawing  power  of  this  world  in  any  form ! 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  1 45 

And  what  a  dulness  or  wilfulness  it  implies,  not 
to  recognize  the  rare  greatness  of  the  man,  who, 
with  such  a  native  craving  for  the  calm  atmos- 
phere of  meditation,  deliberately  at  the  com- 
mand of  conviction  sacrificed  his  ease  and 
comfort  to  the  turmoil  of  social  and  political 
conflict, —  the  greatness  of  the  man,  who,  with  all 
his  deep  and  long  and  patient  thought,  suffered 
himself  to  learn  and  to  be  led  along,  with  the 
meekness  of  a  little  child,  by  Divine  Providence, 
even  though  its  instruments  were  men  whose 
ways  and  manners  often  shocked  his  taste  and 
his  sense  of  Christian  justice. 

But  the  best  comment  on  Mrs.  Chapman's 
aspersions  will  be  a  simple  sketch  of  Dr.  Chan- 
ning's  relation  to  the  antislavery  movement  in 
Boston. 

Channing  and  Antislavery.  —  It  was  during 
his  sojourn  in  the  West  Indies  that  Dr.  Chan- 
ning drew  up  the  first  sketch  of  his  book 
on  Slavery,  which  finally  came  out  in  1835. 
The  interval  was  spent  in  watching  the  public 


146  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING, 

mind,  in  testing  his  own  qualifications  and  voca- 
tion with  regard  to  the  subject,  in  writing  and 
in  communicating  his  thoughts  upon  it,  and,  as 
his  biographer  intimates,  in  waiting  for  the  tem- 
pest to  subside,  before  he  should  call  men  to 
listen  to  the  "  still,  small  voice."  But  when, 
soon  after  his  brother  May's  memorable  reproof 
of  his  silence,  which  he  confessed  had  lasted  too 
long,  Dr.  Channing  had  pubHshed  his  book  on 
Slavery,  and  had  gone  so  far  as  to  invite  Mr. 
May  to  his  pulpit,  he  became  more  and  more, 
in  the  eyes  of  his  people,  identified  with  the 
Abolitionists ;  though  he  still  stood  in  a  some- 
what judicial  attitude  between  them  and  their 
persecutors,  insomuch  that  even  after  his  bold 
stand  at  the  indignation  meeting  upon  the 
Lovejoy  murder,  he  wrote  a  long  letter  to  the 
**  Liberator, "  cautioning  the  friends  of  the  slave 
against  the  war-spirit,  while  acknowledging  the 
justice  of  their  cause.  Still,  in  regard  to  the 
right  of  petition,  the  right  of  free  speech, 
the  wickedness  of  the  mob-system,  Channing 
was  firm  and   unflinching,   and  throughout  the 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  147 

remainder  of  his  life  to  its  very  close,  the  wrong 
done  by  slavery  to  humanity,  and  the  faith  that 
it  must  sooner  or  later  yield  to  the  triumph  of 
the  gospel,  were  the  thoughts  ever  nearest  to 
his  heart. 

What  a  contrast  and  corrective  to  the  tirade 
we  quoted  from  Mrs.  Chapman  is  the  generous 
confession  of  Mrs.  Child :  "  At  first  I  thought 
him  timid  and  even  slightly  time-serving;  but 
I  soon  discovered  that  I  formed  this  estimate 
from  ignorance  of  his  character.  I  learned  that 
it  was  justice  to  all,  not  popularity  for  himself, 
which  made  him  so  cautious.  He  constantly 
grew  upon  my  respect,  until  I  came  to  regard 
him  as  the  wisest,  as  well  as  the  gentlest  apostle 
of  humanity." 

And  here  again  comes  into  view  the  parallel 
in  history  and  character  already  intimated  be- 
tween Channing  and  Bryant,  who  became  slowly 
and  cautiously  at  last  so  stanch  and  strenuous 
a  champion  of  antislavery,  and  of  whom  Curtis 
says :  "  Bryant  seemed  to  the  ardent  leaders  of 
that  ^reat  agitation,  as  the  multitude  of  editors 


148  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

and  politicians  seemed  to  them,  indifferent  and 
hesitating,  too  cold  and  reluctant  for  their  own 
generous  warmth  and  zeal." 

In  1837  came  his  letter  to  Henry  Clay  against 
the  annexation  of  Texas  ;  in  1839,  "  Remarks  on 
the  Slavery  Question,"  in  answer  to  a  speech  of 
Mr.  Clay's ;  in  1840,  a  pamphlet  on  "  Emancipa- 
tion in  the  West  Indies;"  in  1842,  one  on  the 
**  Duty  of  the  Free  States,"  suggested  by  the 
case  of  the  Creole ;  and  finally,  in  August  of  the 
same  year,  his  dying  bequest  (as  we  may  call 
it),  in  the  address  at  Lenox,  in  which,  one  is 
almost  tempted  to  say,  the  style  is  even  more 
spirited  and  sententious,  the  eloquence  more  an 
"  action"  (according  to  the  demand  of  Demos- 
thenes), than  in  any  performance  of  his  most 
vigorous  days.  In  calling  it  the  Swan-song  of 
his  earthly  life,  one  must  not  forget  that  it  shows 
the  eye  and  the  wing  of  the  eagle. 

Read  a  few  pages,  beginning,  *'  Men  of  Berk- 
shire, whose  nerves  and  souls  the  mountain  air 
has  braced,  ...  I  feel  as  if  this  feeble  voice 
which  now  addresses   you   must   find    an    echo 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  149 

amidst  these  forest-crowned  heights," — in  which 
he  goes  on  to  resent  the  idea  of  the  danger 
of  emancipation,  exclaiming:  "Chains  are  not 
the  necessary  bonds  of  society;  oppression  is 
not  the  rock  on  which  states  rest.  .  .  .  Oh ! 
do  not  imagine  that  God  has  laid  on  any  one 
the  necessity  of  doing  wrong.  .  .  .  Better  that 
the  globe  should  be  tenanted  by  brutes,  than 
by  brutalized  men," —  read  these  passages,  and 
then  the  indignant  rebuke  of  the  crocodilian 
tenderness  which  has  no  tears  for  any  victims 
but  the  imaginary  ones  of  Emancipation,  and 
you  will  feel  that  the  orator  has  regained  all 
the  fire  of  his  best  youthful  days. 

Philanthropic  Addresses  continued.  —  Had  these 
labors  in  behalf  of  freedom  and  justice  been  his 
only  ones  in  this  closing  decade,  it  might  well 
have  seemed  to  us  that  they  would  have  been 
more  than  his  delicate  frame  could  have  borne 
without  being  shattered  ;  all  the  while,  however, 
not  from  the  author's  desk  only,  but  from  the 
lecture-desk  and  the  sacred   desk,  he  was,  from 


150  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING, 

time  to  time,  pouring  forth  elaborate  and  elo- 
quent arguments  and  appeals  on  peace,  temper- 
ance, self-culture,  the  elevation  of  the  laboring 
classes,  the  ministry  to  the  poor,  the  claims  of 
the  prisoner;  and  from  this  period,  also,  date 
several  of  his  most  thrilling  pulpit  discourses, — 
the  Dedication  Sermon  at  Newport  in  1836;  the 
one  on  the  Sunday  school,  first  given  there, 
in  1837;  the  funeral  discourses  on  Dr.  Follen,  in 
1840,  and  on  Dr.  Tuckerman  in  1841 ;  and  the 
same  year  the  great  and  catholic  discourse  at 
Philadelphia  on  the  Church. 

But  this  general  catalogue  of  Dr.  Channing's 
productions  is  given  chiefly  for  the  purpose 
of  reminding  our  readers  what  a  marvellous 
amount  of  mental  work,  for  one  in  his  state  of 
health,  he  accomplished.  It  shows  the  power 
of  a  pure  and  lofty  purpose  to  economize  and 
extend  even  one's  physical  abilities ;  it  illustrates 
how  a  good  man's  strength  may  be  "  made  per- 
fect in  weakness," —  how,  where  **  the  spirit  is 
willing  "  and  wise,  the  very  weakness  of  the  flesh 
may  be  made  mighty. 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  151 

Letters  of  the  Closing  Decade.  —  And  yet,  after 
all  this,  much  of  the  best  part  of  the  work  of 
Channing's  mind  and  heart  and  soul  in  these 
years  of  his  comparative  release  from  profes- 
sional service  remains  to  be  spoken  of.  The 
amount  of  truth,  wisdom,  pure  and  ennobling 
influence  that  went  forth  from  his  beautiful  and 
tranquil  island  home,  who  can  estimate,  who 
can  intimate  in  any  worthy  manner?  In  no 
part  of  his  life,  one  may  venture  to  say,  do  we 
catch  more  inspiring  glimpses  —  breathings  — 
of  his  humane,  heavenly  catholicity  than  from 
the  letters,  conversations,  and  memories  of  this 
afternoon,  this  eventide  of  his  days. 

The  beautiful  sentiment  he  had  uttered  in 
1830,  "always  young  for  Liberty,"  was  the 
virtual  expression  of  all  his  following  years. 
In  these  last  ten  years  of  his  life,  and  especially 
in  the  last  five,  that  spirit  of  liberty  and  hu- 
manity which  had  in  politics  broken  out  in  the 
form  of  abolitionism,  almost  at  the  same  time 
in  religion  appeared  even  in  the  pulpit,  where 
it  received  the  names,  by  turn,  of  Transcenden- 


152  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

talism,  Rationalism,  and  Radicalism.  Upon  the 
sharp  struggle  this  caused  in  societies  and  souls 
Dr.  Channing  looked  forth  from  the  ''  loop- 
holes of  retreat "  no  uninterested  spectator ;  in 
the  spirit  and  in  living  words  he  leaped  forth 
into  the  battle;  and  in  no  part  of  his  Hfe  or 
writings  do  we  find  more  condensed  expressions 
of  thought  at  once  free  and  reverent,  of  a  wis- 
dom fitted  at  once  "■  to  quicken  and  restrain," 
than  in  the  easy  and  yet  thoughtful  letters  of 
this  period. 

Yearnings  for  higher,  broader,  and  freer  Concep- 
tions of  Christianity.  —  He  had  long  felt  a  grow- 
ing conviction  of  the  need  of  new  and  nobler 
conceptions  and  administrations  of  Christianity. 
In  1827  we  find  him  writing  to  his  friend  Tucker- 
man  from  his  island  retreat:  "The  effect  of  the 
quiet  thought  to  which  I  give  myself  here  is  to 
make  me  more  sensible  to  the  thick  darkness 
which  overspreads  the  Christian  world.  .  .  .  The 
false  theology  which  has  prevailed  for  ages  is 
burying  us  still  in  night.     But  the  corruptions 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  153 

which  we  are  trying  to  expose  in  the  popular 
system  are  perhaps  but  superficial  compared 
with  those  which  remain  unrecognized,  and 
which  we  all  inherit.  The  true  reformation,  I 
apprehend,  is  yet  to  come."  And  in  the  same 
year,  in  one  of  his  annual  addresses  to  his  peo- 
ple, he  had  declared  that  his  "  love  of  freedom  " 
had  "  grown  with  the  growth  of  his  mind,"  and 
that  to  stimulate  free  thinking,  in  the  true  sense 
of  the  phrase,  had  been  the  highest  aim  of  his 
ministry.  And  in  the  same  discourse  he  re- 
iterates his  sense  of  the  value  of  what  we  may 
call  open-air  Religiojt,  his  obligation  to  nature 
as  "  a  powerful  teacher  of  liberal  feeHngs  "  and 
one  that  does  much  to  counteract  the  illiberal 
preaching  which  passes  for  Christianity.  In 
1828  he  asks  Mr.  Dewey,  ''  Cannot  this  subject 
[religion]  be  taken  out  of  the  hands  of  minis- 
ters ?  "  In  183 1  he  writes  to  Degerando :  *'  What 
is  here  called  Unitarianism,  a  very  inadequate 
name,  is  characterized  by  nothing  more  than  by 
the  spirit  of  freedom  and  individuality."  To 
Joanna  Baillie,  the  same  year,  he  writes :  "  For 


154  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

years  I  have  felt  a  decreased  interest  in  settling 
the  precise  rank  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  power  of 
his  character  seems  to  me  to  lie  in  his  spotless 
purity,  his  moral  perfectio7t,  and  not  in  the 
time  during  which  he  has  existed.  I  have 
attached  less  importance  to  this  point  from 
having  learned  that  all  minds  are  of  one  family^ 
that  the  human  and  the  angelic  nature  are 
essentially  one."  The  same  year  he  tells  Henry 
Ware,  Jr.,  that  he  differs  from  him  in  his  *'  de- 
sire to  imbue  the  theological  students  with 
a  professional  spirit."  In  1832,  writing  to  Sis- 
mondi,  he  doubts  whether  the  "  purified  Chris- 
tianity "  he  anticipates  "  is  to  rise  in  the  form 
of  a  sect  or  party,"  and  thinks  "  the  age  of 
symbols  "  is  "  passing  away."  The  same  year» 
to  Emily  Taylor,  he  explains  his  calling  '*  the 
soul  divine,"  as  meaning  that  the  yearning 
toward  God  is  "  the  very  essence  of  human  na- 
ture." In  1833  he  writes  to  William  Burns  on 
his  favorite  subject,  and  says,  "  I  have  seldom, 
perhaps  never,  met  a  human  being  who  seemed 
to  me  conscious  of  what  was  in  him."     In  1835 


WILLIAM   ELLERY  CHANNING.  155 

he  expresses  to  Sismondi  his  idea  of  '*  a  purer 
church  and  a  spiritual  philosophy.  ...  By  a 
purer  church  I  mean  a  community,  no  matter 
how  small,  in  which  there  would  be  a  direct 
manifestation  of  the  peculiar  power  of  Chris- 
tianity to  purify  and  ennoble  human  nature." 
And  now  we  come  upon  the  series  of  letters 
to  Blanco  White,  in  which  the  union  of  ten- 
derness and  truthfulness  is  very  beautiful.  In 
1838  he  writes  to  him  that  he  feels  as  if  his 
whole  life  had  been  but  a  preparation  for  a  work 
he  has  yet  to  do,  and  which  he  may  need 
another  life  to  accomplish. 

Dr.  Gannett's  Criticisms.  —  It  may  be  men- 
tioned here  in  this  chronological,  if  not  logi- 
cal connection,  that,  under  date  of  Dec.  22, 
1839,  his  more  conservative  colleague,  referring 
in  his  diary  to  Dr.  Channing's  morning  ser- 
mon says,  "  I  did  not  like  the  sermon."  One 
is  startled  at  first,  for  the  critic's  sake,  to  hear 
of  any  one's  dislikiftg  a  sermon  of  Channing's. 
But  presently  he  is  for  a  moment  startled  even 


156  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

for  the  great  preacher's  sake,  when  he  learns 
what  the  doctrine  was  which  created  such 
uneasiness,  and  which  made  Gannett  fear  Dr. 
Channing's  leaning  toward  the  new  Transcen- 
dentalism, namely,  that  the  law  of  rectitude  is 
an  absolute  one,  to  which  God  himself  yields 
obedience  (*' voluntarily  subjects  himself"),  and 
not  simply  an  expression  of  God's  own  will. 

And  again,  Jan.  5,  1840,  Dr.  Gannett  de- 
murs at  another  of  Dr.  Channing's  teachings, 
that  the  best  of  Christianity  is  a  republication  of 
the  religion  of  reason  and  nature.  "  Even  the 
character  of  Christ  and  the  character  of  God, 
Dr.  Channing  thought,  were  excellent  and  glo- 
rious rather  for  what  they  had  in  common  with 
other  good  beings,  than  for  any  attribute  which 
they  alone  possessed." 

Letters  to  Blanco  "White.  —  In  1 839  Channing 
writes :  "  I  would  that  I  could  look  to  Unita- 
rianism  with  more  hope.  .  .  .  You  seem  to  me 
to  make  religion  too  exclusively  a  product  of 
the  reason.  ...  I  consider  religion  as  founded 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  1 57 

in  the  joint  operation  of  all  our  powers,  as  re- 
vealed by  the  reason,  the  imagination,  and  the 
moral  sentiments."  He  also  differs  from  him 
in  making  a  higher  account  of  historical  Chris- 
tianity. He  admits,  "  I  need  miracles  less  now 
than  formerly.  But,"  he  adds,  '*  could  I  have 
got  where  I  am,  had  not  miracles  entered  into  the 
past  history  of  the  world?  "  He  also  says:  "  I 
have  no  sympathy  with  those  who  disparage  the 
natural^  In  a  letter  to  Miss  Peabody,  of  July 
18,  1840,  he  is  grieved  to  find  her  ''  talking  so 
lightly  of  daring  to  be  decidedly  wrong ^'  and 
speaks  of  ^'  that  tmgiiardedness  which,  though 
so  beautiful  to  some,  to  me  is  a  moral  defect." 
Under  the  same  date  he  refers  to  a  "  touching 
sermon "  which  he  had  heard  the  day  before 
from  Frederick  Eustis,  in  the  Newport  church, 
on  the  loneliness  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  adds : 
"  I  claim  little  resemblance  to  my  divine  Friend 
and  Saviour,  but  I  seem  doomed  to  drink  of 
this  cup  with  him  to  the  last."  Coming  from 
one  so  little  given  to  morbid  expressions,  what 
a  significant  glimpse  this  gives  us  of  Dr.  Chan- 


158  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

ning's  feeling  of  the  peculiarity  of  his  position 
between  the  so-called  Conservatives  and  the  so- 
called  Radicals  !  In  184 1  he  writes  to  Professor 
George  Bush :  "•  I  have  little  or  no  interest  in 
Unitarians  as  a  sect.  I  have  hardly  any  thing 
to  do  with  them.  I  can  endure  no  sectarian 
bonds."  And  to  another  correspondent:  **  I 
am  little  of  a  Unitarian,  have  little  sympathy 
with  the  system  of  Priestley  and  Belsham,  and 
stand  aloof  from  all  but  those  who  strive  and 
pray  for  clearer  light,  who  look  for  a  purer 
and  more  effectual  manifestation  of  Christian 
truth." 

Persistent  Misrepresentations  of  Dr.  Channing's 
Relation  to  Unitarianism. —  One  would  think  this 
was  plain  enough,  and  yet  a  recent  lecturer 
(Juhus  Ward)  has  contrived  so  to  misrepresent 
the  following  letter  to  Mr.  Martineau,  dated 
Sept.  10,  1 841,  as  to  make  it  imply  a  confes- 
sion on  Dr.  Channing's  part  that  his  system  is 
vitally  defective  !  Here  is  what  he  really  says : 
"  Old   Unitarianism    must    undergo    important 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  1 59 

modifications  or  developments.  .  .  .  It  cannot 
quicken  and  regenerate  the  world.  ...  It  pledged 
itself  to  progress,  as  its  life  and  end;  but  it  has 
gradually  grown  stationary,  and  now  we  have 
a  Unitarian  Orthodoxy!'  Was  this  Channing's 
system?  Was  this  '*  Channing  Unitarianism  " ? 
A  month  or  two  after  he  writes :  '*  That  any 
existing  sect  should  put  down  all  others  would 
be  but  a  secondary  good." 

Besides,  a  few  years  before  he  had  written  to 
Sismondi,  in  the  same  strain  about  Protestant- 
ism generally^  declaring  his  conviction  that 
"  a  purer,  higher  form  of  Christianity  [than 
that]  is  needed,  such  as  will  approve  itself  to 
men  of  profound  thinking  and  feeling,  as  the 
real  spring  and  most  efficacious  mstrument  of 
moral  elevation,  moral  power,  and  disinterested 
love."  "  No  religion,"  he  says  in  another  let- 
ter, *'  can  now  prevail,  which  is  not  plainly  seen 
to  minister  to  our  noblest  sentiments  and  pow- 
ers ;  and  unless  Christianity  fulfils  this  condition, 
I  cannot  wish  it  success."  And  again,  several 
years  later :   "  One  higher,  clearer  view  of  relig- 


l6o  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

ion  rising  on  a  single  mind  encourages  me  more 
than  the  organization  of  millions  to  repeat  what 
has  been  repeated  for  ages  with  little  effect. 
The  individual  here  is  mightier  than  the  world, 
and  I  have  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  aspirations 
after  this  purer  truth." 

Apropos  of  the  once  common  insinuation  that 
Dr.  Channing  at  some  time  renounced  Unitari- 
anism,  admirably  does  Dr.  Bellows  say  in  his 
recent  commemorative  sermon  at  the  Church  of 
the  Messiah,  just  before  remarking  that  ''  it  was 
Channing's  piety  that  made  him  a  Unitarian, 
and  his  Unitarianism  sustained  and  expressed 
his  piety,"  — '' No  wonder  that  a  saint  so  pure 
and  lofty  should  be  coveted  by  the  communions 
that  in  his  lifetime  called  him  an  infidel.  Now 
that  his  name  and  praise  have  been  acknowl- 
edged by  the  greatest  and  best  Christians  of  all 
modes  of  opinion,  it  is  natural  to  desire  to 
prove,  or  at  any  rate  to  insinuate,  that  he  derived 
his  piety  from  the  opinions  he  spent  his  life  in 
refuting,  and  not  from  those  he  took  up  the 
cross  of  public  odium  to  maintain." 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  C MANNING.  l6l 

Some  time  in  the  year  1841  Dr.  Charming 
heard  of  the  death  of  his  valued  correspondent, 
Blanco  White,  and  after  expressing  his  venera- 
tio7tfor  the  rare  heroism  with  which  he  sought 
/r^////,  he  adds  the  following  beautiful  thought: 
■"  I  have  sometimes  observed  on  the  beach 
which  I  am  in  the  habit  of  visiting,  a  solemn 
unceasing  undertone,  quite  distinct  from  the 
dashings  of  the  separate  successive  waves ;  and 
so,  in  certain  minds,  I  observe  a  deep  undertone 
of  truth,  even  when  they  express  particular 
views  which  seem  to  me  discordant  or  false. 
I  had  always  this  feeling  about  Mr.  White.  I 
could  not  always  agree  with  him,  but  I  felt  that 
he  never  lost  his  grasp  of  the  greatest  truths." 
And  so,  too,  he  felt  in  regard  to  another  great 
soul,  Theodore  Parker,  for  whose  spirit  he  ex- 
pressed his  admiration,  while  decidedly  dissent- 
ing from  some  of  his  doctrines,  in  a  letter  to 
Miss  Peabody,  the  same  summer  of  1841.  He 
writes  from  Lenox,  July  13,  1842:  "I  hke 
much  the  Transcendental  tendencies  of  our 
family."  In  a  letter  to  Miss  Aikin  about  this 
II 


1 62  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

period  he  says :  *'  I  can  forgive  your  friend 
every  thing  but  the  ascription  of  a  priestly 
spirit  to  me." 

Thus  did  this  open-minded  and  open-hearted 
man  maintain  his  position  and  posture  of  free- 
dom, reverence,  and  charity,  amidst  the  doubts 
and  discords  that  prevailed  around  him  in  his 
last  years.  He  feared  not  to  "  prove  all  things," 
but  he  loved  best  to  prove  what  was  "  good  "  and 
to  prove  it  by  holding  fast  to  ity  remembering 
that  it  is  by  being  "  not  conformed  to  this 
world,  but  transformed  by  the  renewing  of  the 
mind,"  a  man  should  "  prove  what  is  that  good 
and  acceptable  and  perfect  will  of  God." 

Influence  of  Nature  on  Channing's  Religion  and 
Theology.  —  As  has  been  already  repeatedly  said 
in  these  pages,  it  was  greatly  owing  to  his  com- 
muning with  God  in  nature  —  to  his  cultivation, 
in  other  words,  of  natural  religion — that  Chan- 
ning,  as  he  himself  has  often  said,  was  enabled 
to  keep  fresh  and  strong  and  clear,  and  even 
more  and  more  so  as  he  advanced  in  age,  his 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  1 63 

faith  and  hope  and  charity;  and  never  were 
his  expressions  of  his  indebtedness  to  nature 
more  ardent  than  in  the  very  last  summer  he 
spent  on  earth.  July  14,  1842,  he  writes  to 
Miss  Martineau,  in  language  reminding  one 
both  of  Wordsworth  and  of  Byron :  "  Nature 
has  been,  and  is,  my  true,  dear  friend.  She  is 
more  than  a  pleasure,  even  a  deep,  substantial, 
elevating  joy.  .  .  .  Nature  does  not  alienate  me 
from  society,  but  reconciles  me  to  it.  In  her 
order  and  beauty  I  see  types  and  promises  of 
a  higher  social  state."  A  month  later  he  writes, 
as  he  looks  on  the  face  of  the  country :  ''  Time 
wears  out  the  wrinkles  on  Mother  Earth's  brow. 
The  world  grows  younger  with  age''  Thus 
does  he  fulfil  in  himself  the  words  of  a  kindred 
spirit, — 

"  And  I  could  wish  my  days  on  earth  to  be 
Bound  each  to  each  by  natural  piety." 

Charming  and  the  Newport  Church.  —  But  we 
have  now  reached  a  period  of  Dr.  Channing's 
life  which,  for  the  present  narrator,  has  a  pe- 
culiar personal  interest.     Now  the  biographer 


1 64  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

has  the  privilege  of  the  reminiscent.  Would  he 
could  have  been  such  by  an  earlier  and  more 
intimate  companionship ! 

The  last  seven  years  of  the  life  of  Channing 
were  the  first  seven  of  the  Unitarian  Church  in 
Newport,  the  first  meeting  for  forming  the  so- 
ciety having  been  held  at  the  house  of  Dr. 
Channing's  uncle,  William  Ellery,  son  of  the 
Signer.  And  here  we  pause  for  a  moment  to 
make  two  remarks.  The  first  is  this:  if  Dr. 
Channing  had  been  the  denominational  leader 
he  has  often  been  vaguely  represented  to  have 
been,  would  this  movement  in  his  native  town 
have  begun  at  so  late  a  moment?  He  had, 
indeed,  some  years  before  preached  in  the  meet- 
ing-house of  his  boyhood  (on  the  reasonable- 
ness of  Christianity,  from  the  text  "  I  am  not 
ashamed  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ"),  but  there  is 
no  account  of  his  ever  having  made  any  special 
effort  to  start  a  Unitarian  organization.  Indeed, 
so  little  was  he  of  a  sectarian,  so  far  from  it, 
that  when  a  church  was  gathered,  and  the  sim- 
ple and  scriptural  covenant  was  submitted  for 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  1 65 

his  approval,  the  only  thing  he  demurred  at  was 
the  expression  "beheving  in  One  God,  the 
.  Father."  He  dreaded  so  to  have  any  thing 
that  might  suggest  a  sectarian  animus  or  atti- 
tude in  close  connection  with  a  sacrament  which 
had  been  so  beset  and  cursed  with  the  hedge- 
thorns  of  dogmatic  and  controversial  intoler- 
ance, that  he  shrank  even  from  the  putting 
forward  of  monotheism  in  a  way  that  might,  by 
any  soul,  be  felt  to  carry  with  it  a  rigid  and 
frigid  exclusiveness,  and  set  orthodoxy  of  opin- 
ion above  the  filial  and  fraternal  spirit. 

But,  on  the  other  hand  (and  this  is  our  second 
remark),  if  Dr.  Channing  had  felt  that  waning  of 
faith  which  has  sometimes,  and  even  to  this  day, 
been  insinuated,  in  the  distinguishing  doctrines 
of  Unitarianism,  could  he  have  preached  at  the 
dedication  of  the  new  society's  house  of  worship 
that  noble  sermon  entitled  "  The  Worship  of  the 
Father  a  Service  of  Gratitude  and  Joy  "  ?  Grati- 
tude and  joy,  —  the  words  characterize  his  own 
service  on  that  occasion. 


l66  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING, 

His  Dedication  Sermon  at  Newport.  —  There  had 
been  some  fear  that  Dr.  Channing's  health  might 
not  be  equal  to  the  task,  and  Dr.  Hall  had  been 
invited  as  his  substitute.  The  event  showed 
that  the  absence  of  Dr.  Channing  would  not 
have  been  unmitigated  disappointment.  The 
sermon  of  Dr.  Hall  was  given  in  the  evening  of 
the  day  of  dedication,  and  (the  text  being 
"Jesus  Christ  the  chief  corner-stone")  was  made 
singularly  appropriate  and  impressive  by  his 
use  of  the  old  inscription  which  still  remains 
scratched  on  one  of  the  foundation-stones  of 
the  northwest  corner  of  the  building,  —  "  For 
Christ  and  Peace.      1729." 

His  Colleague  in  the  old  Hopkins  Meeting-house. — 
It  may  be  of  interest  to  mention  here,  in  connec- 
tion with  this  old  meeting-house  and  the  history 
of  the  new  society,  that  one  of  the  first  to  fill 
the  old  pulpit,  after  it  became  the  property  of 
the  new  parish,  was  Dr.  Channing's  colleague. 
The  history  of  the  Unitarian  Church  in  Newport 
says,  on  the  3d  of  December,   1835,  "  occurred 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  1 6/ 

the  best-remembered  event  of  that  period,  the 
preaching  of  that  'son  of  thunder*  (and  one 
might  add  of  lightning),  Ezra  Stiles  Gannett, 
in  the  old  Hopkins  meeting-house.  ...  In  the 
evening,  when  he  put  forth  his  astonishing  ex- 
temporaneous power,  he  moved  back  and  forth 
in  that  old  pulpit,  and  '  lashed  himself,'  as  one 
expressed  it,  '  to  the  fury  of  a  caged  lion,'  — 
a  singular  image,  one  might  deem  it,  to  describe 
a  man  .rejoicing  in  the  liberty  wherewith  Christ 
makes  the  believer  free ;  but  here  was  one  who, 
like  Paul,  felt  for  those  in  bonds,  as  bound  with 
them,"  to  say  nothing  of  the  local  confinement 
of  the  old-fashioned  preaching-box. 

Channing's  Charge  to  the  first  Minister  of  the 
Newport  Church. — The  next  expression  of  Dr. 
Channing's  interest  in  the  new  church  was  his 
giving  the  charge  at  the  ordination  of  its  first 
minister,  by  whom  his  look  and  tone  and 
weighty  words  will  not  soon  be  forgotten,  par- 
ticularly one  simple  passage.  It  has  often  been 
remarked,   in  commenting   on   sensational    and 


1 68  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

violent  preaching,  that  it  is  not  the  thimder  that 
strikes,  but  the  lightning.  The  one  may  strike 
the  ear,  but  the  other  strikes  the  vital  part.  Dr. 
Channing,  however,  reminded  us  that  there  was 
a  still  more  efficient  agency  than  lightning, 
namely,  light,  and  when,  after  remarking  that 
it  was  light  which  wakes  us  in  the  morning,  he 
exclaimed,  "  My  brother,  help  men  to  see ! " 
although  that  brother  has  succeeded  but  feebly 
in  fulfilling  the  injunction,  the  impression  then 
communicated  of  its  importance  has  never 
faded  from  his  memory.  This  same  charge  was 
repeated  at  the  ordination  of  John  S.  Dwight,  a 
classmate  of  the  present  writer,  at  Northampton, 
and  is  so    printed  in  Channing's  works. 

During  the  summers  of  these  last  years 
Dr.  Channing  often  appeared  in  the  Unita- 
rian Church  as  a  worshipper,  and  several 
times,  perhaps  once  in  each  summer  until 
the  last,  as  the  preacher.  It  was  here  he  first 
preached  his  great  sermon  on  the  Sunday 
school.  Many  there  are  who  well  remember 
the  slight,  fragile  form,  almost  buried  under  the 


WILLIAM  ELLERY   CHANNING.  1 69 

broad,  flapping  brim  of  the  leghorn  hat,  that 
stepped  out  of  the  commodious  old  country- 
chaise  at  the  church  door,  and  still  more  vividly 
do  they  remember  how,  as  he  rose  in  the  pulpit, 
that  form  dilated  with  the  opening  of  those  lumi- 
nous eyes,  and  the  sense  of  his  slenderness  of 
frame  was  lost  in  that  of  the  moral  greatness 
of  the  truth  of  which  he  became  the  organ. 

And  this  calls  to  mind  an  expressive  inci- 
dent, not  unlike  that  anecdote  of  the  Ken- 
tuckian  mentioned  by  William  Channing.  Dr. 
Channing  was  calling  one  day  on  a  lady  in 
Newport,  and  as  he  entered  the  gate,  the  well- 
remembered  Italian  exile  and  teacher,  Signor 
Foresti,  a  man  of  large  stature  and  Italian  impet- 
uosity, was  just  leaving  the  steps.  As  he  was 
politely  making  way  for  the  stranger  to  pass  in, 
he  heard  the  hostess  say,  *' How  do  you  do. 
Dr.  Channing?"  Turning  back  suddenly,  he 
spread  out  his  arms,  as  if  half  in  amazement 
and  half  for  an  embrace,  exclaiming,  ''  What ! 
the  gr-r-eat  Doctor-r  Channing?  "  and  the  object 
of  his  admiration  barely  escaped  the  threatened 
hug. 


I/O  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

As  a  hearer,  Dr.  Channing  was  patient,  atten- 
tive, and  encouraging.  No  doubt  he  remem- 
bered often  the  words  of  holy  Herbert:  — 

"  If  all  want  sense, 
God  takes  a  text,  and  preacheth  Pa-ti-ence." 

An  instance  comes  to  mind  here,  which  happily 
illustrates,  by  the  way,  his  characteristic  dread 
of  exerting  an  influence  that  might  hamper  the 
freedom  of  a  brother's  thought.  One  Sunday 
the  young  preacher  had  ventured  some  specula- 
tions on  the  question  whether  and  how  far  the 
assurance  Jesus  had  of  the  truth  of  his  convic- 
tions differed,  whether  in  kind  or  only  in  de- 
gree, from  that  of  other  men.  After  service,  in 
commenting  privately  on  the  sermon.  Dr.  Chan- 
ning said  very  quietly,  "  I  was  much  interested 
in  your  train  of  thought;  "  then,  after  a  pause,  "  I 
have  made  up  my  own  mind  on  that  subject;  " 
then  relapsed  into  silence.  One  would  have 
given  more  than  a  penny  to  have  heard  what  it 
was.  Would  it,  perhaps,  have  been  what  he  ex- 
pressed to  a  friend  in  one  of  those  last  years:- 
*'  Of  the  formation  of  Christ's   mind  we  know 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING,  171 

nothing,  and  the  secrecy  in  which  his  spiritual 
history  is  veiled  is  no  small  presumption  against 
its  applicableness  to  ourselves.  Infinite  wisdom 
has  infinite  modes  of  disciplining  and  unfolding 
the  spirit.  His  great  end  of  revealing  to  us  the 
Perfect  is  equally  answered,  be  his  spiritual  his- 
tory what  it  may.  All  spirits,  however  un- 
folded, are  essentially  one." 

Reminiscences   of  his  Preaching   at  Newport.  — 

In  the  course  of  those  last  four  or  five  summers 
Dr.  Channing  preached  in  the  Newport  church, 
on  the  same  spot  and  within  the  same  frame- 
work of  building  where  as  a  young  man  he  had 
once  preached  for  Dr.  Hopkins,  several  sermons 
which  in  matter  and  manner  were  a  considerable 
contrast  to  the  ones  that  in  old  times  used  to 
be  heard  (or  scarcely  heard)  within  those  walls. 
And  yet  the  old  Calvinist  would  hardly  have  felt 
them  to  be  wanting  in  vital  piety,  as  they 
breathed,  at  one  time,  the  prayer,  "  Deliver  us 
from  evil ;  "  at  another,  urged  the  necessity  of 
living  to  the  spirit,  and  not  the  flesh,  supremely; 


1/2  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

and  at  another,  dwelt  upon  the  worth  of  a  hu- 
man soul :  though  Hopkins's  old  audience  would 
have  started  from  their  slumber  could  they  have 
heard  the  thrilling  tone  in  which,  one  Sunday 
afternoon,  when  the  impatient  horses  of  the 
fashionable  hearers  were  pawing  and  stamping 
in  the  street,  Dr.  Channing,  insisting  upon  the 
existence  and  nearness  of  evil  from  which  we 
too  needed  deliverance,  and  of  people's  insen- 
sibility to  it,  exclaimed,  "  They  are  as  indifferent 
to  it  as  the  very  animals  that  stand  waiting  for 
them  at  the  church  door !  " 

Channing's  Pulpit  Manner  anticipated  in  a  Biogra- 
phy of  Edwards.  —  But  would  not  Hopkins,  per- 
haps, have  recognized  in  Channing's  usual  man- 
ner something  that  reminded  him  of  his  beloved 
Edwards  ?  Of  the  latter  his  old  biographer  says : 
*'  His  excellency  as  a  preacher  was  very  much 
the  effect  of  his  great  acquaintance  with  his  own 
heart,  his  inward  sense  and  high  relish  of  divine 
truths,  and  experimental  religion.  .  .  .  His  ap- 
pearance in  the  pulpit  was  graceful,  and  his  de- 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 


173 


livery  easy,  natural,  and  very  solemn.  He  had 
not  a  strong,  loud  voice;  but  appeared  with 
such  gravity  and  solemnity,  and  spoke  with  such 
distinctness,  clearness,  and  precision,  his  words 
were  so  full  of  ideas,  set  in  such  plain  and  strik- 
ing light,  that  few  speakers  have  been  able  so 
to  command  the  attention  of  an  audience.  His 
words  often  discovered  a  great  degree  of  in- 
ward fervor,  without  much  noise  or  gesture, 
and  fell  with  great  weight  on  the  minds  of  his 
hearers." 

Alleged  Coldness  of  Channing  and  Bryant  — 
The  same  superficial  criticism  which  has  been 
so  often  passed  upon  the  poetry  of  Bryant  is 
also  frequently  made  upon  the  preaching  of 
Channing,  who  as  a  preacher  may  be  likened, 
in  many  of  his  best  characteristics,  to  Bryant  as 
a  poet.  The  charge  is  that  of  being  coldly  cor- 
rect, and  wanting  in  fire  and  impulse.  But 
Dewey  well  says :  "  Such  was  his  self-control 
that  I  thought  at  first  it  was  coldness ;  the  quiet 
and  subdued  tones  of  his  voice  fell  on   my  ear 


174  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

almost  like  tones  of  apathy.  But  I  soon  learned 
to  correct  that  error.  I  soon  perceived  that  he 
was  accustomed  to  put  a  strong  guard  upon 
his  feelings  precisely  because  they  needed  that 
guard."  Channing  had,  indeed,  a  holy  horror  of 
exaggeration.  "  This  is  an  age,"  he  somewhere 
says,  *'  of  swelling  words."  His  pulpit  manner 
was  quiet,  unadorned,  and  with  little  gesture,  but 
that  the  more  effective,  enforced  chiefly  by  the 
expression  of  the  singularly  luminous  eye  and 
transparent  face,  and  depending  mainly  for  its 
effect  upon  the  intrinsic  majesty  of  the  spoken 
truth.  Never  was  there  a  more  felicitous  de- 
scription of  his  power  than  in  that  stanza  of 
Albert  G.  Greene's  hymn  read  at  the  Memorial 
Service  in  Providence :  — 

"  How  calmly  he  uttered  his  beautiful  thought ; 
How  meekly  he  bore  all  the  honors  it  brought ; 
How  bravely  he  spoke  to  oppression  and  wrong  ; 
In  that  calmness,  that  meekness,  that  courage,  how  strong ! " 

And  equally  happy,  in  the  same  direction,  that 
stanza  in  John  Chadwick's  poem  at  Dr.  Fur- 
ness's  Semi-Centennial :  — 


WILLIAM   ELLERY  CHANNING.  1 75 

"  Tdl  us,  for  thou  didst  know  and  love  him  well, 
Of  Channing's  face,  — of  those  dilating  eyes, 
That  seemed  to  catch,  while  he  was  with  us  here, 

Glimpses  of  things  beyond  the  upper  skies; 
Tell  us  of  that  weak  voice,  which  was  so  strong 
To  cleave  asunder  every  form  of  wrong." 

Channing's  Traits  as  seen  in  the  latest  Bust  of 
him.  —  As  the  writer  of  these  pages  sat  not  long 
since,  in  a  meeting  of  ministers,  fronting  Sidney- 
Morse's  bust  of  Channing,  the  original  seemed 
to  Hve  again,  and  breathe,  and  speak;  and  it 
seemed,  too,  as  if  one  could  read  in  the  head 
and  face,  thus  glorified  in  the  marble,  the  men- 
tal, moral,  and  spiritual  traits  of  the  original. 
There  was  the  look  of  wonder,  inquiry,  and  rev- 
erence in  the  eyes ;  the  eagerness  to  know  new 
truth,  the  openness  to  receive  it,  and  the  firm 
determination  to  do  the  right  it  dictated  with 
divine  authority,  while  in  the  vertical  lines  which, 
like  reins,  enclosed  the  mouth,  were  expressed 
carefulness  as  to  the  tone  and  manner  of  utter- 
ing the  truth,  a  sense  of  responsibility  for  speech, 
and  a  respect  for  the  opinions  and  convictions  of 
others. 


176  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

The  same  reverence  for  truth  and  truthful- 
ness which  marked  his  manner  of  uttering  his 
thoughts,  guarded  and  guided,  restrained  and 
inspired  Channing  in  the  formation  of  his  opin- 
ions. When  Robinson  bade  farewell  to  the 
Pilgrims  on  the  shore  of  Holland,  he  prophesied 
that  there  was  more  light  yet  to  break  forth  out 
of  the  Word  of  God,  and  charged  them  to  follow 
him  no  farther  than  they  felt  that  he  followed 
Christ.  Channing  pushed  the  principle  farther 
than  Robinson  'himself,  perhaps,  would  then 
have  been  ready  to  follow  it.  Channing  felt 
that  new  light  was  yet  to  break  forth  not  only 
from  the  Word  of  God,  as  Robinson  seems  to 
have  meant  it,  namely,  the  written  Word,  but 
new  light  from  the  inner  heavens  in  regard  to 
the  question  where  as  well  as  what  is  God's 
Word ;  in  other  words,  that  on  the  great  themes 
of  theology  and  humanity  new  light  was  to 
come  from  the  works  of  God.  Far  was  it  from 
him  to  imagine  that  the  "  Word  of  God  "  was 
"  bound  "  even  between  the  covers  of  the  most 
sacred  volume. 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  177 

Growing  more  Catholic  with  Age.  —  Thus,  as 
he  advanced  in  years,  Channing  grew  in  catho- 
licity. And  so,  if  he  once  said  that  he  was  less 
and  less  of  a  Unitarian,  he  meant  that  he  was 
more  and  more  a  Christian,  in  fact,  more  and 
more  a  man,  which  was  earlier  and  greater  than 
either.  An  English  Churchman  once  said: 
"  Christian  is  my  name.  Catholic  my  surname ;  " 
meaning  that  he  was  not  a  Roman,  but  a 
Christian  Catholic.  Channing  would  have  said 
that  he  was  a  human  Catholic.  He  would  have 
amended  the  Churchman's  description,  and 
said:  "Christian  is  my  first  name.  Catholic  is 
my  middle  name,  man  is  my  surname,"  —  lay- 
ing the  chief  emphasis  on  the  manhood  and 
the  humanity. 

Channing  has  somewhere  said,  and  in  various 
forms  has  repeated  the  thought,  that  "  the  ulti- 
mate reliance  of  every  human  being  is  and  must 
be  on  his  own  mind."  He  writes  to  Blanco 
White  that  "  the  claim  of  infallibility  in  a 
church  must  be  sustained  by  infallible  reason- 
ing." Channing  abhorred  the  self-sufficiency 
12 


178  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

which  says,  virtually  at  least,  "  You  think  you 
are  right;  we  know  that  we  are,"  and  which  puts 
toleratio7t  (that  is,  condescension)  in  the  place 
of  charity. 

Channing  at  Home  in  his  last  Tears.  —  In  pass- 
ing from  the  public  to  the  more  private  life  of 
Dr.  Channing,  who  could  venture  the  attempt 
even  to  supplement  that  closing  and  charming 
chapter  of  the  Memoir  entitled  '/  Home  Life," 
and  particularly  the  pages  headed  "  A  Day  at 
Newport,"  ''  A  Sunday  at  Newport,"  and  "  Last 
Days"? 

A  Glimpse  of  him  at  Oakland.  —  But  even  here 
a  few  words  of  reminiscence  may  be  pardoned 
one  who  was  not  seldom  a  visitor  there. 

To  those  of  us  who  shared  the  privilege  of 
seeing  Dr.  Channing  in  his  last  years  at  that 
lovely  island  home  (of  which  the  kindness  of 
his  daughter  gives  the  reader  a  glimpse),  it 
seemed  like  conversing  with  a  survivor  of  the 
Apostles,  —  one,  however,  in  whom  a  Paul  and 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  1 79 

a  John  were  blended,  but  who  had  more  of  the 
later  than  the  earher  Peter. 

How  perfectly  in  keeping  was  the  whole  air 
of  that  tranquil  retreat  —  "the  soft  and  soul-like 
sound  "  of  the  breeze  among  the  branches,  and 
all  the  music,  silent  and  audible,  of  animate  and 
inanimate  nature  — with  the  spirit  of  the  man  who 
made  the  place  an  object  of  sacred  pilgrimage 
to  visitors  from  the  farthest  corner  of  the  land 
and  from  across  the  sea !  It  was  with  some 
reluctance  that  we  young  men  ventured  to  in- 
trude upon  his  retirement,  for  we  felt  how  he 
must  have  to  economize  hfs  time  and  strength 
for  the  work  which  we  knew  he  still  had  before 
him ;  and  this  feeling  revived  as  a  kind  of  com- 
punction when,  after  his  death,  his  papers  re- 
vealed what  a  vast  work  he  had  laid  out  for 
himself.  We  were  consoled,  however,  by  re- 
flecting that  these  interruptions  of  solitary  study 
were  perhaps,  after  all,  good  for  him,  though 
possibly  they  only  continued  his  studies  in 
another  form.  For  he  would  sit  for  the  most 
part  in  the  seat  of  the  inquirer  and   learner, — 


l80  WILLIAM  ELLERY  C MANNING. 

a  sore  trial,  at  times,  to  our  modesty,  though 
we  remembered  that  a  wise  man  knows  how  to 
extract  wisdom  from  folly  itself.  Sometimes, 
though  seldom,  where  he  found  an  appreciative 
audience,  he  would  indulge  in  a  monologue 
which,  but  for  its  clearness  and  lucidity,  we 
might  call  Coleridgean ;  and  once,  when  he  had 
taken  us  up  a  sunny  track,  he  suddenly  left  us 
in  mid-height,  to  go  and  rest  for  half  an  hour 
(leaving  us  half-amused  and  half-awed,  so  that 
we  could  scarcely  speak  to  each  other),  and 
then  returned  and  resumed  his  quiet  talk,  and 
kept  his  way  upward  till  we  reached  the  clouds, 
and  came  back  to  earth. 

Then  he  would  do  what  he  loved  best,  namely, 
invite  us  out,  and  introduce  us  to  his  beloved  and 
revered  mother.  Nature.  And  as  we  walked  or 
sat  on  the  circular  seat  round  the  great  beech- 
tree  ("  a  mother  surrounded  by  her  children," 
as  he  once  said  to  us),  there  *'  under  the  shade 
of  the  broad-spreading  beech-tree "  the  Muses 
we  meditated  were  more  likely  to  be  those  of 
theology  and  humanity. 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  iSl 

Sometimes  at  least,  in  his  way  of  telling  an 
anecdote,  he  would  show  gleamings  of  a  latent 
humor,  as  when  he  described  how,  in  the  midst 
of  the  appalling  denunciations  of  a  certain  revi- 
valist (perhaps  Tennant)  in  the  neighborhood, 
the  milder  brother  whose  pulpit  he  was  occupy- 
ing, and  who  sat  below  facing  the  audience, 
slowly  rose  and,  looking  up  at  the  speaker,  ex- 
claimed, "  Brother  Tennant !  Brother  Tennant ! 
Is  there  no  balm  in  Gilead,  is  there  no  physi- 
cian there?  " 

And  when  this  saintly  man  himself  had  occa- 
sion to  admonish  a  brother  privately,  it  was 
more  like  a  benediction  than  an  admonition, 
more  like  a  heahng  than  a  wound. 

His  closing  Days  not  a  Decline,  but  an  Ascen- 
sion.—  With  such  a  man  the  decline  of  life  is 
not  a  going  down  into  the  dark  valley,  so  much 
as  a  climbing  of  the  serene,  sunny  mountain. 
Read  his  later  and  familiar  letters  (so  much  of. 
them,  at  least,  as  his  nephew  has  given  us  in  his 
third  volume),  and  see  how  beautifully  and  cor- 


1 82  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

dially  he  expresses  his  growing  love  of  nature, 
his  welcome  of  spring,  his  fine  feeling  of  atmos- 
pheric suggestions.  This  is  to  him  *'  a  spiritual 
pleasure,  rather  than  a  physical,"  and  seems 
to  him  **  not  unworthy  our  future  existence." 
Twice  he  expresses  and  emphasizes  with  strong 
sympathy  the  idea  of  Henry  More,  that  the  air 
breathing  upon  him  was  the  very  influence  of 
the  Holy  Spirit.  "  How  can  I  convey  to  you," 
he  writes  to  a  friend,  '*  the  music  of  the  trees 
this  moment  in  my  ear,  made  by  a  fresh  south- 
wind  after  a  shower  last  night?  And  yet  this  is 
one  of  my  events^  Again  he  says :  "  I  certainly 
do  not  love  nature  less,  but  more,  as  the  time 
approaches  for  leaving  it.  Is  not  this  a  sign 
that  I  shall  not  leave  it,  that  I  am  preparing 
to  enjoy  it  in  higher  forms?"  And  again:  **  I 
almost  wonder  at  myself  when  I  think  of  the 
pleasure  which  the  dawn  gives  me,  after  having 
witnessed  it  so  many  years." 

And  so  to  the  last.  The  new  day,  the  new 
year,  the  return  of  spring,  the  breaking  forth  of 
new  light  in  the  world  of  thought,  the  laugh  and 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  C MANNING.  1 83 

leap  of  childhood,  —  all   are  to  him   presenti- 
ments of  immortality. 

His  Sunday  Talks  to  the  Farmers.  —  For  several 
summers  of  the  last  years  of  his  life,  Dr.  Chan- 
ning  often  spoke,  of  a  Sunday  afternoon,  at  the 
little  Christian  Church  in  Portsmouth,  a  few- 
steps  from  his  home.  It  was  not  so  much  a 
preaching  as  a  familiar  talk,  and  in  the  very  last 
years  he  would  speak  sitting.  On  these  occa- 
sions he  could  hardly  help  being  a  Httle  dis- 
turbed by  the  numbers  of  summer  visitors  from 
Newport ;  many  of  whom,  to  be  sure,  had  no 
other  opportunity  of  hearing  the  remarkable 
man.  Still  this  throng  of  curious  people  must 
have  seemed  scarcely  congenial  to  his  purpose 
and  wishes,  being,  in  a  sense,  spectators  of  a 
process^  instead  of  humble  auditors  and  seekers. 
A  lady  of  Newport,  who  was  then  a  mere  child, 
remembers  being  taken  by  her  parents  in  the 
family  chaise  to  one  of  those  meetings,  and  her 
most  vivid  recollection  (as  would  naturally 
be   the   case   with   a   child)   is  his   not   having 


1 84  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

taken  any  text,  but  simply  looking  round  upon 
the  farmer  folk  and  beginning  in  his  low,  sweet 
voice :  "  This  is  a  beautiful  world !  "  It  must 
have  reminded  her  of  St.  John  coming  in  to 
his  "  little  children  "  at  Ephesus. 

His  last  Journeyings.  —  The  last  year  or  two  of 
his  life,  too  feeble  for  concentrated  mental  ef- 
fort, Dr.  Channing  would  spend  in  journeying 
to  see  his  scattered  friends  in  city  and  country 
(with  whom  he  had  kept  up  a  lively  correspond- 
ence), and  to  look  largely  upon  the  face  of  the 
great  mother,  Nature,  his  nursing-mother  and 
life-long  friend  and  intimate.  It  was  only  a  lit- 
tle more  than  a  year  before  his  death,  in  1 841, 
that  he  visited  Philadelphia  and  gave  his  great 
sermon  on  the  Church.  The  next  spring  he 
went  up  to  Berkshire ;  it  seemed  as  if  he  were 
called  by  the  voice  of  the  Spirit  to  "  go  up 
higher;"  having  opened  his  eyes  upon  the 
ocean,  he  was  to  close  them  upon  the  moun- 
tains, those  **  near  neighbors  "  of  the  skies. 

Those  last  excursions  were  full  of  serene  hap- 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  1 85 

piness.  *'  Amidst  such  truly  elysian  beauty," 
he  writes,  "  the  chains  which  the  spirit  wears 
are  broken,  and  it  goes  forth  to  blend  with  and 
to  enjoy  the  universe.  ...  Is  there  not  a  day 
of  release  at  hand?  "     Yes,  there  was. 

Meanwhile  he  was  fulfilling  the  beautiful  pre- 
diction of  the  Prophet:  ''They  that  wait  upon 
the  Lord  shall  renew  their  strength."  Eight 
years  before,  when  his  mother  died,  he  had 
written  that  *'  the  winter  of  her  age  [she  was 
eighty-two  years  old]  seemed  warmed  and 
brightened  with  the  fervor  of  youthful  feeling." 
And  now  he  too  seemed  to  be  growing  younger 
as  he  approached  the  eternal  world.  It  was 
as  if  the  air  of  heaven,  breathing  through  the 
trees  of  life  and  from  the  river  of  life,  wafted 
an  immortal  freshness  to  his  brow.  More  and 
more  he  saw  God  and  felt  his  presence  in  Na- 
ture. Time  wrote  no  wrinkles  on  her  azure 
brow. 

The  Last  of  Earth,  the  First  of  Heaven.  —  And  so, 

as  his  days  wore  on  to  their  earthly  close,  Chan- 


1 86  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

ning  went  onward  from  strength  to  strength, 
from  breadth  to  breadth,  from  height  to  height, 
onward  and  upward,  till  the  day  when,  with  his 
dying  vision  resting  upon  the  hills,  which  were 
to  him  the  hills  of  God,  —  "  up  to  the  hills  "  to 
which  his  eyes  had  ever  been  Hfted,  "  the  eter- 
nal hills  beyond  the  skies," —  with  the  words  of 
the  mountain-sermon  in  his  ear,  and  love  to 
God  and  man  in  his  heart,  —  in  the  calm  even- 
ing of  a  peaceful  Sunday,  his  spirit  ascended 
into  heaven. 

Among  his  last  words,  beside  the  touching 
ones  his  nephew  records,  were  these,  on  over- 
hearing some  talk  about  arrangements  for  the 
night:  "You  need  not  be  anxious  concerning 
to-night.  It  will  be  very  peaceful  and  quiet  with 
me."     And  so  it  was. 

Theodore  Parker  finely  and  truly  said :  "  He 
turned  his  face  toward  that  sinking  orb,  and  he 
and  the  sun  went  away  together.  Each,  as  the 
other,  left  the  smile  of  his  departure  spread  on 
all  around,  —  the  sun  on  the  clouds;  he  on  the 
heart." 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  1 8/ 

And  still  on  those  hills,  and  on  the  hearts 
of  all  who  in  imagination  go  back  and  watch 
through  those  farewell  hours,  the  light  of  his 
memory  lingers  with  blessed  and  immortal  radi- 
ance. And  ever  since  he  went  up,  thoughtful 
souls,  of  every  name,  have  vied  with  each  other 
in  a  growing  appreciation  of  the  wondrously 
balanced  traits  of  his  character. 

Tributes  to  his  Memory.  —  In  his  own  denomi- 
nation, it  need  not  be  said,  the  finest  minds  and 
the  noblest  souls,  not  only  when  the  tidings  of 
his  death  first  reached  them,  but  often  ever 
since,  whenever  some  anniversary  or  "  other 
occasion  called  him  vividly  to  remembrance, 
have  labored  (if  such  a  genial  effort  can  be 
called  labor)  to  supplement  each  other's  trib- 
utes to  the  quality  of  his  spirit  and  his  work. 
It  would  be  a  gratifying  task  to  enumerate  and 
analyze  the  leading  sermons  which  the  death  of 
Channing  called  forth  from  such  men  as  Mar- 
tineau,  and  our  own  Gannett,  Dewey,  Hall, 
Bellows,  Clarke,  Ellis,  Parker,  and  others.     They 


1 88  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING, 

ought  to  be  printed  together ;  they  would  form 
one  of  the  best  exponents  of  what,  for  the  want 
of  a  better  name,  we  call  Liberal  Christianity, 
beside  helping,  each  in  its  way,  to  the  presenta- 
tion of  a  complete  estimate  of  the  character 
which  has  so  impressed  each  one  of  them. 

Parker's  "Humble  Tribute." —  Perhaps  the  most 
remarkable  discourse  which  the  occasion  elic- 
ited was  that  fervent,  impromptu  outpouring 
(outburst,  one  might  almost  say)  of  reverent 
and  loving  admiration,  —  Theodore  Parker's 
"  Humble  Tribute."  Justly  discriminative  in  its 
philosophical  estimate,  it  is  at  the  same  time  an 
overflowing  attestation  of  personal  gratitude  to  a 
spiritual  benefactor  and  father.  He  affirms  that 
'*  Dr.  Channing  has  done  more  than  any  other  of 
the  Christian  writers  to  make  religion  beautiful 
and  winning.  .  .  .  No  one  of  our  century,  in  Eng- 
land or  America,  has  done  so  much  as  he,  to  set 
forth  the  greatness  of  man's  nature,  the  love- 
liness of  Jesus,  and  the  goodness  of  God.  In 
this  respect  he  is  the  father  of  us  all.  ...  It 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  189 

is  not  easy  to  find  a  writer  since  the  days 
of  Johrr  the  EvangeHst,  on  whom  piety  is  so 
universal,  so  lovely,  and,  above  all,  so  attractive. 
It  has  all  the  strength  of  St.  Augustine  without 
his  extravagant  asceticism,  all  the  sweetness  of 
Kempis  or  Hugh  de  St.  Victor  or  Bohme  or 
Law  without  their  dreamy  mysticism  and  aque- 
ous sentimentality."  He  was  "  a  fountain  of 
healing  water,  fed  by  five  perennial  springs; 
his  moral  fidelity,  his  pious  heart,  his  love  of 
man,  his  forgetfulness  of  self,  and  the  careful 
cultivation  of  his  gifts,  —  these  were  the  secret 
of  his  eloquence  and  power.  .  .  .  Each  year 
brought  him  new  wisdom  and  new  power  of 
speech.  He  was  a  rare  example  of  a  man,  after 
half  a  century  of  life,  growing  yearly  more  elo- 
quent. The  cause  is  plain.  The  eloquence 
that  comes  of  tropes  and  figures  and  brilliant 
thought  may  fade  with  the  fading  sense;  but 
the  eloquence  that  comes  of  a  moral  purpose, 
of  a  religious  trust,  deepens  with  that  zeal,  and 
grows  brighter  as  that  faith  rises  higher  and 
more  high.  .  .  .  Each  season  the   flowers  and 


1 90  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING, 

the  stars  had  a  new  beauty  in  his  eyes.  Nature 
and  man  grew  yearly  in  his  esteem."  As  to  his 
liberahsm,  "  this  must  be  said  of  Dr.  Channing, 
that,  if  he  was  slow  in  coming  to  the  principles 
and  method  of  a. liberal  theology,  he  never  for- 
sook them,  but  went  farther  than  his  former 
friends,  to  some  conclusions  logically  unavoida- 
ble, but  now  vehemently  denied." 

But  beyond  the  bounds  of  his  own  and  any 
sect  or  land,  the  name  and  memory  of  Chan- 
ning  have  found  a  cordial,  Christian,  and  human 
recognition. 

Rare  Episcopal  Testimony.  —  An  Episcopal 
clergyman  only  recently,  in  acknowledging  the 
gift  of  a  copy  of  Channing's  works,  wrote  to 
the  Secretary  of  the  Unitarian  Association :  "  I 
have  the  honor  to  belong  to  an  association  of 
Episcopal  clergymen  of  thoughtful '  and  broad 
sympathies.  ...  At  the  last  meeting  it  was  re- 
solved to  recognize  the  Centennial  of  Channing, 
and  pay  honor  to  his  memory,  by  having  a  pa- 
per prepared  by  some  member  who  would  treat 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  191 

the  subject  in  a  loving  and  reverent  and  sympa- 
thetic spirit,  to  be  read  at  a  future  meeting, 
which  should  be  devoted  to  the  consideration  of 
his  work  in  the  world,  especially  of  Christian 
thought  and  activity.  On  me  was  put  the  honor 
of  appointment  to  this  pleasant  task. 

"  I  have  related  this  fact,  since  it  cannot  fail  to 
have  a  special  interest  for  those  who  are  in  the 
direct  line  of  Apostolic  succession  from  this 
ApostoHc  man." 

A  glo"wring  Methodist  Eulogium.  —  And,  a  few 
years  after  Channing's  death,  a  distinguished 
Methodist  brother,  in  one  of  the  most  magnan- 
imous and  intelligent  tributes  to  his  memory 
(though  finding  Channing  ''  such  an  anomaly 
among  Unitarians  as  Fenelon  was  among  Ro- 
manists," too  pious  for  a  Unitarian  and  not 
enough  so  for  a  Methodist),  went  even  so  far  as 
to  say :  "  Such  a  man  as  Dr.  Channing  must  have 
stood  majestically  in  advance  of  his  age,  when- 
ever and  wherever  he  had  lived.  He  lived,  ac- 
cording to  the  sense  of  the  present  generation,  at 


192  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

least,  in  the  best  age  of  the  world,  and  yet  was 
far  in  front  of  it;  if  it  reaches  his  radiant  posi- 
tion in  two  centuries,  the  signs  of  the  times  are 
certainly  quite  illusive."  So  wrote  Dr.  Abel 
Stevens  in  the  "  Methodist  Quarterly  "  of  Jan- 
uary, 1849,  and  closes  his  paper  with  these  still 
stronger  words :  ''  As  the  visitor  wanders  among 
the  shaded  aisles  of  the  western  part  of  Mount 
Auburn,  he  sees  a  massive  monument  of  marble 
designed  by  Allston,  the  poet-painter.  Gener- 
ous and  brave  men  from  whatever  clime  resort 
to  it,  and  go  from  it  more  generous  and  brave ; 
for  there  reposes  the  great  and  good  man  whom 
we  have  commemorated.  The  early  beams,  in- 
tercepted by  neighboring  heights,  fall  not  on  the 
spot;  but  the  light  of  high  noon,  and  the  later 
and  benigner  rays  of  the  day,  play  through  the 
foliage  in  dazzling  gleams  on  the  marble,  —  a 
fitting  emblem  of  his  fame ;  for  when  the  later 
and  better  light  which  is  yet  to  bless  our  deso- 
late race  shall  come,  it  will  fall  with  bright 
illustration  on  the  character  of  this  rare  man, 
and    on   the    great   aims   of  his   hfe."      Is   not 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  193 

this  a  Liberal  Christian  indeed,  who  can  write 
thus? 

Echoes  from  Europe.  —  But  indeed,  in  all  na- 
tions as  well  as  denominations  of  the  civilized 
world,  the  name  of  Channing  is  a  household 
word,  a  watchword  of  freedom,  of  justice,  and  of 
humanity.  On  the  other  side  of  the  ocean  the 
celebrated  French  Protestant,  M.  de  Remusat, 
wrote  of  him  :  — 

"  It  was  not  the  Federal  Street  Society  alone, 
that  wept  the  loss  of  an  eloquent  and  pious 
pastor;  it  was  not  the  city  of  Boston  alone, 
that  regretted  one  of  its  noblest  ornaments ;  all 
America  deplored  the  death  of  a  generous  and 
enlightened  citizen;  and  when,  on  passing  out 
from  the  sacred  enclosure,  they  heard,  all  at 
once,  the  funeral  bell  of  the  Catholic  cathedral 
toll  in  honor  of  him  who  had  so  well  understood 
and  loved  their  bishop,  Cheverus,  every  one  felt 
that  Channing  was  of  no  sect,  of  no  one  com- 
munion, but  that  his  most  ardent  wish  was 
realized,  and  that  he  belonged  only  to  the  uni- 
versal Church  of  Christ." 
13 


194  WILLIAM   ELLERY  CHANNING, 

Frederick  Robertson's  enthusiastic  expres- 
sions may  not  be  known  to  some  of  our  readers. 
*'  I  should  be  very  glad,"  he  says,  *'  if  half  of 
those  who  recognize  the  hereditary  claims  of  the 
Son  of  God  to  worship,  bowed  down  before  his 
moral  dignity  with  an  adoration  half  as  pro- 
found or  a  love  half  as  enthusiastic  as  Dr. 
Channing's.  I  wish  I,  a  Trinitarian,  loved  and 
adored  him  any  thing  near  the  way  in  which 
that  Unitarian  felt.  .  .  .  Pray  do  not  give  up 
*  Channing's  Life '  [by  his  nephew],  nor  read  it 
by  starts,  but  consecutively,  and,  if  possible, 
regularly  every  day,  at  a  fixed  hour." 

So  it  may  be  said  of  Channing,  his  words 
have  gone  out  through  the  world,  and  his 
thought  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  In  England, 
in  France,  in  Italy,  in  Germany,  in  Hungary, 
he  is  domesticated ;  in  many  a  foreign  tongue 
his  writings  are  translated,  and  thousands  of  dif- 
fering creeds  honor  his  rational  religion,  his 
enlightened  piety,  and  his  wise  philanthropy. 
He  is  preached  in  pulpits  where  he  could  not 
have  preached  in  his  lifetime.     The  incident  is 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  1 95 

familiar  to  all,  of  Sydney  Smith's  saying  at  the 
close  of  a  Sunday's  sermon,  *'  Do  not  imagine 
that  this  sermon  is  mine,  —  I  cannot  do  such 
things,  —  it  is  by  an  American,  Dr.  Channing." 
The  writer  of  this  book,  happening  some 
years  ago  to  be  in  Calcutta  and  to  attend  ser- 
vice at  the  English  Church,  which  was  glory- 
ing in  the  ministrations  of  an  eloquent  young 
preacher,  was  struck  with  the  familiar  sound  of 
certain  portions  of  the  sermon;  and  when  the 
preacher  came  to  a  climax  with  the  words 
almost  literally  repeated,  "  There  are  times 
when  to  be  still  demands  immeasurably  higher 
strength  than  to  act,"  the  mystery  was  cleared 
up ;  and  upon  a  subsequent  introduction  to  the 
preacher,  his  American  hearer  having  suggested 
the  striking  coincidence  with  Channing,  the 
reply  was,  "  No  wonder  my  discourse  should 
smack  of  Channing;  he  is  always  lying  by  me 
on  my  tabje ;  in  fact,  he  is  my  Vade  Meciimr 

French  Admirers  of  Channing.  —  Some  twenty- 
five   years   ago   that   great  friend   of  America, 


196  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING, 

Laboulaye,  passing  along  the  Quai  Voltaire, 
picked  up  a  volume  of  Channing,  and  presently 
was  running  hither  and  thither  to  his  friends, 
crying,  "  I  have  discovered  a  great  man !  " 
And  forthwith  he  began,  and  for  several  years 
continued,  translating  and  publishing,  with  bio- 
graphic and  analytical  prefaces,  several  of  Chan- 
ning's  leading  lectures  in  the  cause  of  human- 
ity; and  several  years  ago  he  collected  these 
into  a  volume,  to  which  he  prefixed  a  short 
but  exceedingly  appreciative  sketch  of  Chan- 
ning's  life,  which  ought  to  be  translated  into 
English.  He  says  :  '*  In  the  history  of  religion, 
I  believe  Unitarianism  destined  to  take  a  promi- 
nent place,  for  it  is  the  last  term  of  free  inquiry, 
and  (to  speak  my  whole  thought)  to  it  belongs 
the  future  of  Protestantism."  He  speaks  of  Uni- 
tarianism as  a  system  which  presents  "  Chris- 
tianity as  the  perfection  of  philosophy,  and 
revelation  the  perfection  of  reason."  And  he 
quotes  a  comparison  of  Channing's,  that  "  both 
are  the  same  light,  with  the  difference  of  dawn 
and  noonday."    ''  To  found  an  immutable  church 


WILLIAM   ELLERY  CHANNING.  1 97 

on  the  principle  of  free  inquiry,  of  individual 
sovereignty,  is,"  he  says,  **  a  problem  as  im- 
possible as  to  establish  an  unchangeable  gov- 
ernment on  universal  suffrage.  ...  If  Chan- 
ning  had  been  but  one  sectary  more  in  the 
religious  Babel,  one  would  not  have  called  at- 
tention to  him."  But  he  welcomes  in  him  the 
"  Christian  Rationalist,"  —  one  who  rises  above 
mere  philosophy  in  recognizing  that  immense 
event,  "  the  regeneration  of  the  human  race  by 
the  word  of  a  man,"  and  who  stands  apart 
from  the  mere  Orthodox  in  recognizing  that 
"  God  has  set  the  principle  of  union  not  in  the 
mind,  but  in  the  heart  of  man."  And  he  con- 
cludes with  commending  to  his  countrymen  the 
study  of  that  "  good  man,  who  all  his  Hfe,  con- 
sumed by  one  sentiment  and  one  idea,  sought 
truth  and  justice  with  all  the  forces  of  his  in- 
tellect, and  loved  God  and  man  with  all  the 
strength  of  his  heart." 

Thus  far  Mr.  Laboulaye ;  and  now,  within  a 
year  or  two,  a  French  Catholic,  M.  Lavollee, 
has  written  an  enthusiastic  book,  "  crowned  by 


198  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

the  Academy  of  Moral  and  Political  Sciences," 
entitled  ''  Channing:  His  Life  and  his  Doctrine," 
in  which  occur  these  remarkable  paragraphs: 
"  In  whatever  he  says  or  writes  he  is  always 
the  apostle  of  universal  love  and  fraternity; 
this  is  his  first  and  most  distinctive  charac- 
ter. He  has  another,  and  that  is  a  youthful 
confidence  and  daring  {atidace)  which  age  can 
never  chill.  In  every  circumstance  and  on  all 
questions  he  pushes  to  the  extreme  his  efforts 
as  well  as  his  hopes.  In  the  pursuit  of  this  end 
he  shows  himself  animated  by  a  faith  equal  to 
that  which  fired  the  Apostles  and  the  first 
Christians.  He  never  lets  himself  be  stopped 
by  any  obstacle ;  he  never  doubts  of  success  in 
the  most  difficult  enterprises.  He  applies  to 
Christian  propagandism  the  truly  American 
maxim  which  his  compatriots  take  for  their 
guide  in  their  commercial  enterprises  as  in 
their  political  campaigns:  ^  Go  ahead,  fear 
nothing,  help  yourself  (^En  avant,  ne  crains 
rien,  aide-tot  toi-meme)^  One  would  think  he 
might  have  given  Channing  the  credit  at  least 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  1 99 

of  modifying  the  absoluteness  of  the  motto  with 
that  other  very  important  clause :  ''  First,  be 
sure  you  're  right,"  though,  to  be  sure,  some  one 
has  said  there  is  this  difference  between  English 
and  American  railroad  conductors,  —  the  former 
cry,  ''  All  right,  go  ahead !  "  and  the  latter,  **  Go 
ahead,  all  right !  " 

But  the  writer,  after  a  few  paragraphs,  pro- 
ceeds :  "  How  is  it  possible  not  to  admire  in 
the  works  of  Channing,  by  the  side  of  his  dog- 
matic errors,  the  sublime  moral  portrait  which 
he  draws  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  the  profound 
sentiment  of  veneration,  gratitude,  and  love 
which  animates,  so  to  speak,  every  line  of 
these  inspired  pages?  How  can  one  help 
loving,  in  Channing,  the  defender  of  all  the 
oppressed,  the  advocate  of  all  the  miserable, 
the  truly  Christian  apostle,  consecrating  his 
energies  and  his  life  to  the  cause  of  the  eman- 
cipation of  the  negro,  to  the  spread  of  popular 
education,  to  the  moral  amelioration  of  working- 
men?  How  can  one  help  pardoning  in  him, 
after  so  many  noble  efforts,  an  excess  of  opti- 


200  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

mism  and  of  confidence,  carried  perhaps  to  the 
very  verge  of  illusion?"  And  then  follows 
this  extraordinary  parallel :  ''  It  is  in  these  no- 
ble qualities,  in  his  love  of  Christ,  his  human- 
ity, his  invincible  hope,  finally  and  especially 
in  his  infinite  faith  in  the  Divine  compassion, 
that  Channing  resembles  his  constant  model, 
Fenelon;  but,  side  by  side  with  these  points 
of  approximation  in  character  and  doctrine, 
there  exist  numerous  differences  between  the 
Catholic  Archbishop  of  Cambrai  and  the  Uni- 
tarian pastor  of  Boston,  between  the  prelate 
of  the  seventeenth  century  and  the  minister  of 
the  nineteenth.  If  both  equally  reprove  war 
and  slavery,  they  have  neither  the  same  way 
of  viewing  nor  of  combating  them.  The  one 
invokes  only  the  precepts  of  the  divine  law; 
the  other  prefers  to  base  himself  on  those  in- 
alienable rights  which  are  essential  to  the  very 
nature  of  man.  Both  have  vowed  to  Jesus 
Christ  a  love  equally  lively  and  profound,  but 
while  the  one  adores  and  prays,  the  other  con- 
templates and  reveres.     In  their  lives,  in  their 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  201 

characters,  the  contrast  still  holds.  F^nelon  is 
the  more  ardent,  Channing  the  more  practical ; 
the  one  is  a  poet,  the  other  a  controversialist, 
[singular  perversion  of  the  fact!]  Fenelon  is 
a  writer  of  the  first  order,  Channing  is  rather  a 
thinker;  Fenelon  is  a  century  at  least  in  advance 
of  his  contemporaries,  Channing  inherits  and 
profits  by  all  the  ideas  put  in  circulation  by 
the  eighteenth  century  and  by  the  Revolution ; 
Fenelon  takes  faith  as  the  rule  of  his  reason, 
Channing  attributes  to  reason  an  absolute  and 
unhmited  supremacy;  Fenelon  is  a  theologian 
and  a  Catholic,  Channing  is  pre-eminently  a 
moralist  and  hardly  Christian. 

**  From  this  point  of  view,"  the  writer  goes 
on,  *'  we  may  find  some  analogy  between  Chan- 
ning and  his  illustrious  compatriot,  Benjamin 
Franklin.  With  both,  the  same  respect  for  the 
moral  laws,  the  same  affectionate  interest  in  the 
laboring  classes,  the  same  desire  to  elevate  them 
in  their  own  eyes  and  in  the  eyes  of  the  world 
by  instruction  and  education,  the  same  practical 
counsels  given  in  the  same  spirit  of  paternal 


202  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING, 

solicitude.  Franklin,  however,  resembles  Chan- 
ning  still  less  than  Fenelon  does.  He  is  utili- 
tarian and  cold,  while  Channing  is  ardent  and 
enthusiastic ;  he  deduces  his  moral  precepts 
from  the  lessons  of  experience,  while  Channing 
represents  them  as  flowing  from  the  nature  of 
man  and  from  the  will  of  God ;  he  assigns  as 
the  supreme  object  of  our  efforts  happiness, 
while  Channing  is  constantly  sounding  in  our 
ears  the  great  word  Duty.  Channing  would  be 
a  stoic  if  he  were  not  a  Christian  [an  apparent 
contradiction,  this  last  acknowledgment,  to  the 
end  of  the  previous  paragraph]  ;  Franklin,  if  he 
were  not,  above  all,  of  his  own  time  and  country, 
would  follow  Cicero  and  Plato  in  the  gardens  of 
Academus. 

"  Neither  Fenelon  nor  Franklin  carries  so  far 
as  Channing  his  faith  in  the  doctrines  of  hu- 
manity." 

A  {^\N  specimens  may  be  given  of  this  writer's 
strictures  on  Channing's  heresies:  — 

"  A  similar  want  of  logic  is  seen  in  the  idea  he 
forms  of  the  nature  of  Jesus  Christ.    Who  is  this 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  C MANNING.  203 

incomprehensible  Being,  who  is  not  God,  but 
who  has  the  divine  perfection,  who  is  not  man, 
but  who  is  clothed  in  a  human  body?  Is  not 
here  a  mystery  even  more  incomprehensible 
than  that  of  the  Catholic  Trinity?  Arius  made 
the  Word  the  creature  of  God  th^  Father,  but 
he  recognized  its  divinity ;  the  Free-thinkers  will 
not  see  in  Jesus  any  thing  but  an  inspired  man ; 
to  the  Jews  he  is  an  impostor;  with  the  Catho- 
lics he  is  God  himself,  descended  to  the  earth 
and  invested  with  our  humanity.  These  all 
are  logical;  Channing  alone  is  not,  with  that 
strange  conception  of  a  Son  of  God  who  finds 
himself,  in  some  sort,  placed  between  heaven 
and  earth,  and  whom  one  can  liken  to  nothing 
but  the  demigods  of  Paganism.  .  .  .  Another 
example  of  Channing's  contradictions :  he 
considers  the  passage  of  Jesus  Christ  over  the 
earth  as  the  most  admirable  lesson  ever  given 
to  man ;  he  recognizes  in  all  his  words,  in  all 
his  works,  the  divine  imprint,  and  yet  he  refuses 
to  see  a  God  in  the  Crucified  of  Calvary.  But 
has  he  comprehended  what  becomes  then  of  that 


204         WILLIAM    ELLERY   CHANNING. 

scene  of  sorrows,  of  cruelties,  of  defeats,  and  of 
treason,  which  begins  at  the  Garden  of  Olives 
and  ends  at  Golgotha?  If  the  Passion  is  not  an 
expiation,  it  is  one  of  the  most  hideous,  the 
most  revolting,  the  most  criminal  spectacles 
that  were  ever  offered  to  the  eyes  of  men.  If 
Christ  is  not  the  divine  ransom  of  humanity, 
his  cross  is  the  most  odious  of  gibbets,  his 
death  is  the  most  bloody  outrage  upon  Divine 
justice.  How  was  it  possible  for  a  soul  so  pure, 
so  sweet,  so  full  of  love  as  that  of  Channing 
to  give  birth  to  an  idea  so  monstrous?" 

The  reference  here  is  to  the  famous  illustra- 
tion of  the  ''  Central  Gallows  "  in  the  sermon  at 
Mr.  Sparks's  ordination,  but  it  is  curious  to  see 
how  the  critic  unconsciously,  himself  enforces 
Dr.  Channing's  own  argument.  Well  has  it 
been  said  by  an  English  critic  in  a  late  Review : 
"  If  they  [the  Liberals]  regard  the  sufferer  as  a 
God-like  man  rather  than  a  man-like  God,  it  is 
not  they  who  make  the  sacrifice  less  awful  to 
the  human  imagination,  or  the  submission  less 
sublime." 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  C MANNING,  205 

Here  is  another  of  the  same  writer's  strictures : 
"  Logically  applied,  free  inquiry  issues  in  the 
negation  of  the  supernatural  in  the  absolute 
reign  of  reason.  Thus  we  see  many  Protestants 
arrive  insensibly  at  rationalism,  and  Protestant- 
ism, as  a  whole,  degenerate,  by  little  and  little, 
into  philosophism.  When  it  attempts  to  stop 
on  that  fatal  slope,  to  formulate  a  body  of  doc- 
trines, to  fix  in  some  sort  a  minimum  of  beliefs, 
it  is  unfaithful  to  its  principle ;  it  deviates  toward 
the  idea  of  collective  revelation,  of  doctrinal 
instruction  and  authority ;  it  is  not  slow  in  arriv- 
ing at  full  Catholicism." 

Renan  says  of  Channing:  "  Those  who  appre- 
ciate a  religion  according  to  its  simplicity  and 
its  degree  of  transparency  ought  to  be  charmed 
with  this  one.  Certain  it  is,  that,  if  the  modern 
mind  is  right  in  craving  a  religion  which,  without 
excluding  the  supernatural,  diminishes  the  dose 
as  much  as  possible,  the  religion  of  Channing  is 
the  purest  and  most  perfect  which  has  hitherto 
appeared.  .  .  .  His  theology  is,  at  bottom,  all 
that  theology  can  be  in  the  nineteenth  century 


206  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

and  in  America,  —  plain,  simple,  honest,  prac- 
tical ;  a  theology  a  la  Franklin,  without  great 
metaphysical  reach  or  transcendental  scope. 
.  .  .  On  this  point  Channing  never  arrived  at 
a  perfectly  clear  formula  of  his  own  thought. 
...  If  not  the  founder,  Channing  is  certainly 
the  saint  of  the  Unitarians.  .  .  .  The  true  mis- 
sion of  Channing  was  clearly  all  moral.  He 
was  a  Vincent  de  Paul  minus  the  devotion,  a 
Cheverus  minus  the  sacerdotal  unction.  He 
was  not  a  genuine  rationalist,  for  what  sort 
of  a  rationalist  is  he  who  admits  miracles, 
prophecies,  a  revelation?  But  then  he  was  not 
a  man  of  faith,  for  faith  demands  the  impos- 
sible ;  it  is  not  satisfied  except  at  that  price.  .  .  . 
If  the  problem  of  the  world  could  have  been 
resolved  by  rectitude  of  heart,  simplicity  and 
moderation  of  spirit,  Channing  would  have 
resolved  it.  .  .  .  The  least  inconvenience  of 
Channing's  world  would  be  that  it  would  die 
of  ennui.  Genius  would  be  useless ;  grand  art 
impossible." 

It  is  evident  that  a  Renan  could  not  under- 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  20/ 

stand  a  Channing.  Perhaps  it  would  be  too 
much  to  say  that  a  French  nature  could  not. 
What  can  be  more  superficial  than  the  idea  that 
Channing  rejects  or  slights  the  mysterious  ele- 
ment because  he  discards  contradictions  and 
mathematical  impossibilities  as  fatal  alike  to 
reason  and  to  faith? 

I  have  translated  this  remarkable  mdange  of 
half-truth  and  untruth  from  a  writer  who,  on 
the  whole,  is  enthusiastically  eulogistic  of  Chan- 
ning, because  it  answers  well  enough,  making 
allowance  for  French  idiosyncrasies,  to  certain 
superficial  and  perverse  misrepresentations  of 
Channing's  position  and  principles  even  in  his 
own  country. 

For  example,  when  Channing's  rationalism  is 
reprobated,  as  if  it  were  something  opposite  to 
reverence  and  religiousness,  how  strangely  and 
superficially  do  his  critics  ignore  the  patent  fact 
that  he  religiously  reveres  human  reason  as  the 
very  image  of  God  in  man,  the  inspiration  of 
the  Almighty,  who  giveth  man  understanding; 
and  that  his  grand  aim  is  to  persuade  or  pro- 


208  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

voke  his  fellow-men  to  feel  that  reason  in- 
volves a  religious  responsibility,  and  that  even 
an  Apostle  exhorts  men  to  be  ready  to  give  a 
reason  for  the  hope  that  is  in  them. 

But  to  say  that,  in  thus  honoring  reason, 
Channing  sets  it  above  faith  or  in  the  place 
of  faith,  the  wondering  and  adoring  sentiment 
of  the  soul,  is  grossly  to  misread  his  pages. 
He  rejoices  in  extending  the  bounds  of  light, 
feeling  that  God  is  Light,  but  beyond  and  be- 
hind all  he  recognizes  that  mystery,  infinite 
to  created  beings,  before  which  faith  waits  in 
reverent  trust. 

Channing  Unitarianism.  —  It  has  been  the  fash- 
ion in  some  quarters  to  affix  to  the  name  of 
Channing  a  variety  of  disparaging  epithets,  — 
the  very  variety  of  which,  when  they  are  rightly 
considered,  would  seem  to  redound  to  the 
credit  of  his  breadth  of  nature.  He  has  been 
called  a  mystic  and  a  rationaHst,  a  radical,  an 
individualist,  an  egotist,  an  optimist,  a  Chan- 
ning Unitarian. 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  C MANNING.  209 

If  to  be  a  Unitarian  means  to  believe  in  the 
one,  sole,  supreme,  self-existent  God  the  Father; 
if  it  means,  in  the  words  of  the  Elder  Coquerel, 
to  believe  that  "  Christ  is  above  all,  and  God 
above  Christ;  "  if  it  means  to  acknowledge  the 
same  kind  of  unity  between  the  Son  and  the 
Father  as  between  the  Father  and  the  whole 
family  of  his  true  children  in  heaven  and  earth ; 
if  it  means  to  hold  to  the  oneness  of  true  re- 
ligion and  true  morality;  if  it  means  to  have 
faith  in  the  Father  as  one  and  unchangeable  in 
his  fatherly  disposition  and  designs  through 
all  eternity,  —  then  was  Channing  a  stanch, 
decided,  pronounced  Unitarian  to  the  last. 
"  Christ,"  says  a  critic  already  quoted.  Pro- 
fessor Fisher  of  New  Haven,  '*  was  really,  if  not 
theoretically,  more  to  him  than  a  teacher  and 
an  example."  Of  course  he  was,  as  he  is  to 
every  true  Christian ;  not,  however,  in  his  na- 
ture more  than  a  human  being,  but  simply 
an  immortal,  ever-present  friend  and  inspiring 
companion,  elder  brother  of  the  race,  and  cap- 
tain of  our  salvation,  captain  of  the  great  army 
14 


2IO  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

of  martyrs.  But  if  they  who  have  departed 
from  certain  of  Channing's  opinions,  who  have 
become  more  humanitarian,  more  of  restora- 
tionists,  more  of  naturaHsts  than  he,  as  regards 
speculative  doctrine,  are  set  down  as  recreant 
to  Channing  Unitarianism,  the  reproach  shows 
a  grievous  failure  to  perceive  what  were  the 
Unitarian  principles  dearest  to  Channing's 
heart. 

Channing's  Independence  needed  To-day.  —  In 
writing  the  life  of  a  man  like  Channing,  such  as 
these  pages  have  presented  him,  it  is  impossi- 
ble, consistently  with  the  spirit  and  scope  of  this 
biography,  to  avoid  asking  now,  Would  this 
man,  were  he  living  among  us  to-day,  be  any  less 
independent,  any  less  free,  or  any  less  fervent 
than  he  was  in  the  last  years  of  his  life  on 
earth?  Would  he  not  have  had  to  bear,  and 
would  he  not  have  borne  with  growing  patience 
and  cheerfulness,  his  share  of  the  opprobrium 
which,  in  an  age  fond  of  nicknames  as  an  easy 
way  of  characterizing  and  classifying  men,  has 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  211 

to  be  borne  by  every  man  who  follows  the 
religion  of  reason,  and  accepts  whatever  seems 
to  him  good  in  all  sects  and  systems?  Would 
he  not  be  reproached  to-day  at  once  as  a  time- 
server  and  as  a  free-thinker,  as  a  conservative 
and  as  a  radical?  Channing,  rightly  under- 
stood, is,  indeed,  a  name  for  both  the  rationalist 
and  the  religionist  to  conjure  by.  Indeed,  when 
we  consider  how  Jesus  and  John  have  been  in  all 
these  centuries  claimed  as  authority,  with  equal 
confidence,  by  Trinitarians  and  Unitarians,  by 
Naturalists  and  SupernaturaHsts,  by  Arians  and 
Humanitarians,  the  fact  that  Channing  is  ap- 
pealed to  by  such  opposite  schools  of  opinion 
as  each  one's  peculiar  patron  saint,  should  be 
set  down  as  a  strong  indication  that  his  is  the 
way  of  truth. 

Channing  and  Creed-making.  —  When,  a  few 
years  ago,  that  memorable  crisis  came  in  the 
history  of  our  Unitarian  fellowship,  at  which  it 
was  thought  by  some  to  be  high  time  that  we 
should  take  a  new  departure, —  that  we  should 


212  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

give  up  the  good  old  plan  of  le7igthenmg  the 
cords  of  fellowship,  and  so  sU'engtheniitg  the 
stakes  of  faith,  —  that  we  should  put  ourselves 
into  tmiform,  so  as  to  know  ourselves  and 
make  ourselves  known,  —  in  other  words,  and 
without  a  figure,  that  we  should,  at  our  Na- 
tional Conference,  adopt  a  creed  and  make  our- 
selves more  distinctively  and  decidedly  a  sect, 
—  who  can  doubt,  if  Channing  had  been  still 
amongst  us,  what  would  have  been  his  mind  and 
word  in  the  matter,  —  what  he  would  have 
thought  and  said,  who  so  often  and  so  earnestly, 
in  his  last  years  and  in  the  growing  light  of  the 
eternal  life,  emphasized  the  superiority  of  the  in- 
ward and  spiritual  drawing  to  any  outward  and 
formal  bindings  as  means  and  motive  of  Chris- 
tian union ;  arguing  that  though  in  this  way  the 
benefit  of  authority  might  be  lost,  and  the  unity 
of  the  sect  threatened,  still  no  unity  was  ''  of  any 
worth,  except  the  attraction  subsisting  among 
those  who  hold,  not  nominally  but  really,  not 
in  words  but  with  profound  conviction  and  love, 
the  same  great  truths." 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  213 

"William  Ware's  Estimate.  —  In  the  November 
number  of  the  **  Christian  Examiner"  for  1842, 
the  month  after  his  death,  appeared  a  glowing 
eulogy  on  Dr.  Channing,  undoubtedly  from  the 
pen  of  the  editor,  William  Ware,  a  man  utterly 
free  from  extravagance,  who,  after  dwelling  at 
some  length  on  the  peculiar  value  of  Channing's 
work  and  life  as  an  exposition  of  the  heart  and 
soul  of  the  Unitarian  gospel,  goes  on  to  say,  **He 
was  most  wanted  after  the  controversy  had  sub- 
sided," and  adds  :  '*  It  was  like  the  Israelites  going 
out  of  the  bondage  of  Egypt ;  they  were  going  to 
a  fairer,  freer  land,  flowing  with  milk  and  honey, 
—  but  what  a  waste  wilderness  between  !  .  .  .  He 
took  up  the  Liberal  creed,  if  creed  it  can  be 
called,  which  has  no  more  the  form  and  syste- 
matic method  of  a  creed  than  the  Gospel  of  John 
has,  or  the  teachings  of  Christ,  —  but  such  as  it 
was  he  took  it  into  the  embrace  of  his  clear,  ca- 
pacious intellect,  his  elevated,  ardent  soul ;  he 
fixed  upon  it  the  heaven-beaming  glance  of  his 
spirit's  eye,  and  with  his  vigorous  pen  and  his 
simple  but   glowing   eloquence    he    made    it   a 


214  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

creed  indeed  —  no,  not  a  creed,  but  a  religion, 
all  one  with  the  very  Gospel  of  Christ."  He 
"  did  more  ...  to  reproduce  the  original,  un- 
mixed Christianity  on  the  earth,  the  knowledge 
and  conception  of  what  it  really  is,  than  any 
other  man  since  the  Apostles'  days.  Those 
simple  doctrines  of  Christ,  hard  to  be  recog- 
nized as  doctrines,  they  were  so  simple,  he  made 
them  doctrines,  as  Christ  did,  the  doctrines,  the 
essential  ones,  the  gospel." 

Is  not  this  a  just  estimate  of  Channing's  work 
and  spirit,  and,  thus  described,  is  there  any  less 
use  for  ''Channing  Unitarianism "  (not  to  say 
less  need  of  it)  than  there  ever  was? 

Channing's  Literary  Merits  and  Style.  —  It  has 
been  already  said  that  Channing  became  an 
author  by  accident;  he  himself  said  so.  He 
never  cared  to  think  of  himself  as  a  litterateur; 
and  yet  it  is  noteworthy  that  his  sermons  had 
a  leading  part  with  those  of  his  great  contem- 
poraries, Buckminster  and  the  rest,  in  giving 
the  sermon  a  place  here  in  literature,  as  literary 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  21$ 

production,  and  not  mere  sectarian,  theologi- 
cal, political,  or  historical  matter,  —  a  place,  in 
short,  m  polite  literature,  and  among  the  /minan- 
ities.  Channing  himself,  indeed,  repeatedly  dis- 
claims paying  any  special  attention  to  mere 
style.  In  his  letters  to  Miss  Aikin  he  expresses 
his  admiration  for  that  of  Goldsmith,  and  his 
own  inability  to  approach  him.  Even  the  **  rare 
grace"  of  Addison  he  pronounces  "beyond  his 
reach ;  "  but  he  seems  almost  to  envy  Gold- 
smith, who,  he  says,  "■  unites  with  Addison's 
wonderful   ease  and   nature  a  sweetness  all   his 

own.     Such  writers  as  Addison  and  Goldsmith," 

» 

he  adds,  "  make  me  feel  my  own  great  defects. 
The  eloquent  style,  as  it  is  called,  I  might  make 
some  approach  to.  But  the  spontaneous  grace 
of  these  writers  is  beyond  mc."  May  we  not 
add,  that  it  was  aside  from  his  sphere? 

The  style  of  Channing  is  plain,  pure,  and 
perspicuous.  It  has  the  transparency  of  a  clear, 
calm  autumn  afternoon,  when  no  haze  dims  the 
serenity  of  the  atmosphere.  Sometimes,  though 
more  rarely,  it  has  the  sober  splendor  of  those 


2l6  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

after-summer  hours,  when  a  mingled  mellow- 
ness and  brilliancy  charm  the  beholder.  But, 
withal,  it  is  marked  by  a  self-contained  quiet- 
ness and  even  flow.  It  has  an  ease  which  never 
degenerates  into  that  inflated  and  turgid  manner 
which  sometimes  impairs  the  style  of  his  class- 
mate, Judge  Story.  It  has  a  certain  chaste  ele- 
gance, but  is  remarkably  free  from  ornament; 
deals  very  sparingly  in  figures,  and  scarcely  uses 
one,  excepting  where  the  figure  is  not  mere  or- 
nament but  argument ;  resembling,  so  far,  more 
the  style  of  Webster  than  that  of  Everett. 

In  his  remarks  on  Milton's  prose,  Channing 
says :  "  The  best  style  is  not  that  which  puts 
the  reader  the  most  easily  and  in  the  shortest 
time  in  possession  of  a  writer's  naked  thoughts, 
but  that  which  is  the  truest  image  of  a  great 
intellect,  which  conveys  fully  and  carries  far- 
thest into  other  souls  the  conceptions  and 
feelings  of  a  profound  and  lofty  spirit.  .  .  . 
A  full  mind  will  naturally  overflow  in  long  sen- 
tences. .  .  .  We  delight  in  long  sentences  in 
which  a  great  truth,  instead  of  being  broken  up 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  21/ 

into  numerous  periods,  is  spread  out  in  its  full 
proportions,  is  irradiated  with  a  variety  of  illus- 
tration and  imagery,  is  set  forth  in  a  splen- 
did affluence  of  language,  and  flows,  like  a  full 
stream,  with  a  majestic  harmony  which  fills  at 
once  the  ear  and  soul." 

It  is  remarkable  that  while  thus  eulogizing  Mil- 
ton's grand,  swelling,  sonorous  periods,  he  him- 
self is  fond,  in  his  own  case,  of  short  sentences ; 
and  yet  it  is  not  that  he  loves  to  condense  his 
thought  into  pithy,  epigrammatic,  sparkling 
utterances.  Very  few  such,  comparatively,  oc- 
cur in  his  pages.  But  he  is  fond  of  turning 
a  thought  round  and  round,  that,  like  a  precious 
stone,  it  may  send  forth  a  new  light  from  every 
side ;  changing  the  figure  suddenly,  one  might 
say  that  he  is  not  long-breathed.  But  be  the 
explanation  what  it  may,  we  find  it  to  be  a 
characteristic  of  Channing's  writing,  that  it  is 
broken  up  into  short  sentences,  and  that  we 
are  constantly  stopped  by  a  period  where  we 
should  expect  only  a  semicolon.  This  reitera- 
tion is  remarkable. 


2l8  WILLIAM  ELLERY  C MANNING. 

The  comparison  of  Channing's  clearness  of 
style  to  that  of  a  cloudless  atmosphere  suggests 
the  remark  that,  like  the  air,  it  is  colorless  until 
you  look  through  a  long  field  of  it.  Channing 
himself  somewhere  lays  down  the  rule  that  the 
preacher's  style  should  be  free  from  that  poetic 
coloring  which  would  distract  the  hearer  from 
the  moral  and  practical  point  and  purpose. 
Perhaps  the  severity  of  his  requirements  in  this 
direction  is  somewhat  too  narrow.  It  would 
have  been  hard  to  apply  his  rule  to  such  men 
as  Father  Taylor  or  Jeremy  Taylor.  **  The 
style  is  the  man!'  Channing's  was  true  to  his 
own  thought  and  temperament. 

It  has  been  often  remarked  how  very  rarely 
Channing  quotes  from  others,  and,  on  the  other 
hand,  how  few  single  sentences  there  are  in  his 
works  that  are  quotable,  and  have  become  **  fa- 
miliar quotations."  A  few  such  there  are, — 
such  as,  "All  minds  are  of  one  family;" 
"  There  are  times  when  to  be  still  demands 
immeasurably  hjgher  strength  than  to  act;" 
"The  ultimate  rehance  of  every  human  being 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  219 

is  and  must  be  on  his  own  mind;"  "  Honor^ 
>,(^  all  men,  fear  no  man;J*  "  All  glory  is  of  the 
soul;"  "To  be  universally  intelligible  is  not 
the  highest  merit,  " —  but,  generally,  Channing 
is  better  remembered  by  whole  paragraphs  than 
by  separate  sentences. 

The  poetic,  the  imaginative  element  was,  in 
Channing's  style,  as  has  been  said  already,  kept 
under  severe  subjection  and  subordination  to 
the  practical  purposes  of  his  writing.  Still,  at 
times  his  thought  would  rise  into  a  strain  of 
richly  colored  and  euphonious  diction,  of  which 
here  are  two  examples.  In  the  article  on  Fene- 
lon,  speaking  of  the  peace  of  God,  the  peace  of 
reHgion,  he  says :  ''  It  is  more  than  silence  after 
storms.  It  is  as  the  concord  of  all  melodious 
sounds.  Has  the  reader  never  known  a  season 
when,  in  the  fullest  flow  of  thought  and  feeling, 
in  the  universal  action  of  the  soul,  an  inward 
calm,  profound  as  midnight  silence,  yet  bright 
as  the  still  summer  noon,  full  of  joy,  but  un- 
broken by  one  throb  of  tumultuous  passion,  has 
been  breathed  through  his  spirit,  and  given  him 


220  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING, 

a  glimpse  and  presage  of  the  serenity  of  a  hap- 
pier world?  Of  this  character  is  the  peace  of 
religion." 

Again,  toward  the  close  of  his  letter  to 
Mr.  Clay  on  the  annexation  of  Texas,  he  has 
this  beautiful  thought:  ''I  have  prepared  this 
letter,  not  amidst  the  goadings,  irritations,  and 
feverish  tumults  of  a  crowded  city,  but  in  the 
stillness  of  retirement,  amid  scenes  of  peace  and 
beauty.  Hardly  an  hour  has  passed,  in  which 
I  have  not  sought  rehef  from  the  exhaustion  of 
writing,  by  walking  abroad  amidst  God's  works, 
which  seldom  fail  to  breathe  tranquillity,  and 
which,  by  their  harmony  and  beneficence,  con- 
tinually cheer  me,  as  emblems  and  prophecies 
of  a  more  harmonious  and  blessed  state  of  hu- 
man affairs  than  has  yet  been  known." 

If  there  is  little  of  epistolary  and  conversa- 
tional freedom  and  familiarity  in  Channing's 
pulpit  style,  in  his  letters  he  certainly  escapes 
the  stately  manner.  After  all,  we  must  own  that 
his  style  was  best  suited  to  his  theme  and  treat- 
ment. 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  221 

Under  the  title  "  Channing "  In  Charles 
Knight's  Encyclopaedia,  some  writer  ventures 
a  judgment  and  a  prediction  which,  it  is  safe 
to  say,  unless  the  concurrent  voice  of  cultured 
and  Christian  people  strangely  misleads  us,  are 
destined  not  to  be  sustained  by  the  voice,  or 
rather  the  silence,  of  time.  He  says :  "  Chan- 
ning is  one  of  the  most  striking  writers  America 
has  produced;  and  his  works,  beside  their  at- 
tractions of  style,  are  all  animated  by  a  pure 
and  lofty  moral  spirit.  His  eloquence,  however, 
though  often  imposing,  has  not  much  nature 
or  real  fire ;  its  splendor  is  mostly  verbal ;  the 
thoughts  are  true  and  just,  rather  than  new  or 
profound ;  it  is  exciting  on  a  first  perusal,  but 
will  hardly  bear  a  second.  Nothing  that  he  has 
written,  therefore,  has  much  chance  of  long  re- 
taining its  reputation ;  there  is  too  little  in  it  of 
the  spirit  of  life;  too  little  of  any  thing  that 
can  be  called  its  own,  and  that  is  not  to  be 
found  elsewhere.  Both  in  its  rhetorical  char- 
acter, however,  and  in  its  strain  of  sentiment 
it  was  well  calculated  to  produce  an  immediate 


222  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

effect."     This  we  may  venture  to  call  a  literary 
curiosity. 

Careful  Method  in  Composition.  —  But  Chan- 
ning's  great  aim,  so  far  as  the  form  of  expres- 
sion is  concerned,  was  truth  to  his  convictions, 
to  himself.  His  nephew  gives  a  detailed  ac- 
count of  his  method  of  composition,  —  the 
extreme  care  and  thoroughness  with  which  he 
went  about  his  mental  work.  The  pigeon-holes 
of  his  desk  were  left  full  of  those  little  square 
folded  leaves,  containing  the  first  jottings-down 
of  the  thoughts  which  he  was  afterward  to  fill 
out  and  write  out  and  expand.  One  such  lili- 
putian  sheet  is  here  copied  literally.  ''God 
is  working  all  around  us  —  perpetually,  infi- 
nitely —  We  think  we  ascribe  to  him  labor  in 
supposing  every  motion  in  the  boundless  uni- 
verse willed  by  him  —  But  how  easy  are  infinite 
operations  to  omnipotence.  Millions  of  motions 
demand  no  more  labor  than  one  — 

*'  One  distinction  between  human  and  divine 
power :  that  the  works  of  the  former  go  on  by 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  223 

interrupted  labor  and  come  to  their  end  —  In 
God's  we  see  perpetual  action  —  The  plant 
grows  every  moment  without  a  pause  —  There 
is  no  rest  in  nature.  The  plant,  indeed,  fully 
develops  itself,  but  not  to  stand  still,  like  a 
human  machine  —  It  begins  immediately  to 
decay  —  A  new  series  of  changes  immediately 
commences  —  The  Divine  Artificer  has  no  need 
of  keeping  his  works  —  They  are  poured  forth 
in  infinite  profusion  — 

"Another  distinction  is:  Man  works  on 
masses — with  coarse  tools  —  never  penetrates 
to  the  elements — Nature  accomplishes  its  pur- 
poses by  minutest  and  most  delicate  opera- 
tions —  No  coarse  machinery  clothes  a  tree  with 
verdure  with  a  few  strokes.  Every  leaf  is  dis- 
tinctly elaborated,  pencilled,  by  the  gradual 
influence  of  countless  and  invisible  particles. 

"  May  we  not  suppose  the  Infinite  Artificer 
finding  a  pure  delight  in  every  product  of 
skill  —  as  we  do  —  Is  not  intelligence  in  action, 
reahzing  its  ideas,  producing  effects  by  hap- 
piest  combinations,  a   happy   intelligence  —  Is 


224  WILLIAM  ELLERY  C MANNING. 

not  the  Divine  mind  every  moment  enjoying  its 
numberless  works  of  power  — 

**  Is  [not]  God  every  moment  woi'kmg  before 
us,  as  truly  as  a  man  —  In  the  expansion  of 
every  flower  is  not  God  as  plainly  manifest  as 
we  see  human  agency  in  a  growing  painting  or 
machine  —  How  near  — 

**  In  manufactories  what  a  din  —  how  offen- 
sive the  smell  —  Enter  a  field,  the  divine  lab- 
oratory. We  boast  of  a  thousand  spindles  — 
How  much  more  complicated,  exquisite  appa- 
ratus in  every  blade  of  grass  —  Each  grows 
separate. 

"  Is  dissolution  allowed,  to  call  forth  this  per- 
petual energy  in  renovation  — 

"Winter  —  what  occasion  it  gives  for  new 
manifestations  of  power  —  and  skill  —  The  safe- 
ty of  animals  and  plants  —  " 

Specimens  of  the  Sententious  from  Channing's 
Letters.  —  Dr.  Miles,  in  his  little  volume  of 
"  Thoughts  from  Channing,"  says :  "  There  is 
probably  no  other  author  of  the  age  from  whose 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  22$ 

works  a  greater  number  of  striking  detached 
thoughts  may  be  gathered."  But  this  can  hard- 
ly be  true,  if  he  means  thoughts  expressed 
in  single  sentences,  and  unless  he  applies  the 
remark  to  paragraphs  and  pages.  Otherwise 
what  Dr.  Bellows  said  of  Channing  is  surely 
nearer  the  truth,  that  "there  are  few  great 
writers  from  whom  so  few  splendid  passages 
could  be  selected."  The  very  quality  of  Dr. 
Channing's  style,  indeed,  makes  this  to  be  so. 

If,  however.  Dr.  Miles  had  applied  his  remark 
to  Channing's  correspondence,  it  could  have 
been  more  plausibly  sustained ;  and  a  collection 
similar  to  his  made  from  Dr.  Channing's  let- 
ters and  private  papers  would  be  a  pithy  and 
precious  remembrancer  and  companion.  Here 
are  a  few,  for  example :  *'  Once  reverie  was  the 
hectic  of  my  life ;  now  meditation  has  become 
the  life  of  my  soul."  "  To  speak  on  interesting 
subjects  is  the  ground  of  sincerity."  "  Let  me 
first  feel  the  force  of  truth  myself,  and  then  im- 
press it  on  others."  "  In  conversation  let  me 
draw  persons  from  evil-speaking  and  contention, 


% 


226  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

and  painful  or  injurious  subjects,  by  catching 
some  thought  suggested,  and  making  it  the 
ground  of  remark."  "  Great  objects  make  great 
minds."  y^  wise  man  seeks  to^^ine  in  him- 
self; a  fool,  to  outshine  others/V  '(The  wise 
man  considers  what  he  wantsj^the  fool,  what  ) 
he  abounds  in."  }  "  -^^^  ^^ot  thoughts  voluntary  ? 
Do  they  not  originate  in  active  principles?" 
"  In  connecting  with  a  thing  all  that  belongs  to 
itvjt  become  acqtiainted  v^\\h  it."  "  All  objects 
may  be  viewed  as  expressions  of  goodness." 
\ h  *'  He  is  miserable_who  makes  pleasure  his  busi- 
ness.'; ^Letme_never  talk  of  my  zeal  for 
Csouls,  except  with  God!^  *'  Children  should  never 
be  deceived.  ...  It  is  better  to  let  them  cry 
than  to  give  them  a  lesson  in  manoeuvring." 
*'  They  very  slowly  learn  that  others  feel  as 
'keenly  as  themselves."  VC"  We  waste  the  present 
for  a  future  which  never  comes."^  **"I  smile  when 
I  hear  poetry  called  light  reading^  "The  high- 
X  est  genius,  I  believe,  is  a  self-guidijig,  calm, 
comprehensive  power.  It  creates  in  the  spirit 
of  the  Author  of  the  Universe,  in  the  spirit   of 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  22/ 

order.     It  worships  truth  and  beauty."     **_The 
/  massof  people,  who    never  think,    understand 
J  little    the    trials    of    a    superior    mind    which 
/  must  think/*/  "  The   greatest   minds  admit  no 
biography.     They  are  determined  from  within." 
**  Christianity  ...  a  religion  of   benignant  as- 
pect, of  a  liberal  spirit,  of  lofty  purposes,  given 
to    free    and    enlarge    the    intellect,   to   form    a 
higher  order   of   character,  a  filial  and  elevat- 
ing   and    unbounded    charity,  —  and    to    indue 
the  will  with  invincible  strength  in  well-doing." 
"  I  have   seldom,  perhaps  never,  met  a  human 
being  who   seemed   to    me  conscious   of  what 
was  in  him."     ''  The  common  mode  of  speaking 
of   prayer,   as    if  it   were    mere   asking,   or  did 
not   include    moral   effort,    seems    to    me   very 
pernicious."      *'  One  of  the  beauties  of  Christ's 
character   is   his    superiority   to   his   miracles." 
V  "  There  is  something  more  terrible  than  slavery, 
V  _and  that  is  the  spirit  that  enslaves."  ' ''  Flattery     / 


is  never  so  sweet  as  when  it  gives  us  confidence 
in  the  possession  of  qualities  in  which  we  fail_ 
most,  or,  at  least,  about  which  we  doubt  most. 


228  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

*'  There  is  such  a  thing  as  being  slaves  to  our 
own  past  good  impressions!'  "  The  best  proof 
of  a  heaven  to  come  is  its  dawning  within  us 
now."  *'  I  have  thought  that  by  analyzing  a 
pain,  I  have  been  able  to  find  an  element  of 
pleasure  in  it."  "  I  cease  to  wonder  that  six 
thousand  years  have  not  done  more  for  the  race, 
when  I  see  so  clearly  that  a  thousand  years  are 
but  a  day  to  the  Eternal."  This  reminds  one 
of  Kepler.  "  '  Solitude  is  sweet,'  says  a  French 
but  I  want  a  friend  to  whom  I  can  say 
is  sweet.'  ''/^"  The  old  adage  that  sails 


/    writer,  "  1 
V    *  solitude 


profit  nothing  without  ballast,  we  must  remem- 
ber. Unhappily  some  are  all  ballast,  and  go  to 
the  bottom ;  some  of  us  are  all  sails  and  run 
adrift."  "We  visionaries,  as  we  are  called,  have 
this  privilege  from  living  in  the  air,  that  the 
harsh  sounds  from  earth  make  only  a  slight  im- 
pression on  the  ear."  *'  Time  wears  out  the 
wrinkles  on  Mother  Earth's  brow.  The  world 
grows  younger  with  age."  "  I  feel  more  and 
more  that  love  is  better  than  thought,  or,  rather, 
that  thought  is  worth  little  when  not  steeped  in 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  C MANNING.  229 

love/,^  "  A  good  book  might  be  written  on  the 
art  of  suffering!'  "  I  have  great  faith  in  inspi- 
ration ;  but  it  is  a  fruit  and  reward  of  faithful 
toil,  not  a  chance  influence  entirely  out  of  our 
power."  "  Sects  are  apt  to  hate  each  other  in 
proportion  to  their  proximity.  The  old  prov- 
erb, that  two  of  a  trade  can  never  agree,  ap- 
plies to  religion  as  strongly  as  to  common  life." 
"  Do  not  waste  your  breath  in  wailing  over  the 
times.  Strive  to  make  them  better."  "  There 
seems  a  fatality  attending  creeds.  After  bur- 
dening Christianity  with  mysteries  of  which  it 
is  as  innocent  as  the  unborn  child,  they  have 
generally  renounced  the  real  mystery  of  relig- 
ion, that  of  human  nature." 

Truth,  not  Effect,  Channing's  Aim.  —  But  literary 
taste  in  the  shaping  of  expression  was  always 
subordinated  and  made  subservient  by  Chan- 
ning  to  moral  purposes,  and  the  yearning  to 
benefit  humanity.  Of  course  he  would  be  re- 
proached by  those  who  did  not  know  his  physi- 
cal condition  and  his  inner  aims  and  aspirations, 


( 


230.  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CIIANNING. 

as  a  self-indulgent  dilettante  and  sentimental- 
ist, or  dreamer  and  visionary;  but  "in  truth," 
as  Dr.  Bartol  finely  says,  "  infirmity,  seclusion, 
tender  cherishing,  and  susceptibility  to  external 
influences  only  disguised  in  him,  to  most,  the 
all-daring  courage,  all-enduring  patience,  of  the 
martyr." 

"Was  Channing  Self-indulgent?  —  Channing  is  a 
noble  example  of  the  power  of  patient  self- 
study  and  self-discipHne  to  make  a  man  an  effi  - 
cient  servant  of  truth  and  benefactor  of  his  race. 
He  has  been  reproached  with  individualism. 
What  is  so  stigmatized  was  really  the  wise,  rev- 
erent, and  spiritual  economy  of  an  invalid,  who 
would  save  his  strength  to  devote  it  in  the  way 
he  best  could  to  the  cause  of  truth,  virtue,  and 
humanity.  What  Mr.  Calvert  finely  says  of 
Socrates  may  be  applied  to  Channing:  ''Self- 
centred,  not  self-seeking."  Channing's  love  of 
nature  was  no  mere  sensuous  or  selfish  enjoy- 
ment. It  seems  almost  as  if  he  himself  were 
speaking   through    his   brother    Gannett,   when 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  23  I 

the  latter,  writing  in  1834,  during  a  wedding 
journey,  says :  "  There  is  a  spirituaHty  in  this 
beauty  of  the  material  world  which  I  cannot 
resist.  It  addresses  the  spiritual  in  man.  It 
awakens  in  him  the  consciousness  of  a  nature 
born  to  enjoy  the  lovely.  This  nature  cannot 
be  doomed  to  decay.  My  faith  in  immortality 
has  gained  strength  amidst  God's  glorious  works." 
How  singularly  in  Channing's  style  and  spirit  is 
this  !  He  himself  somewhere  says  :  "  I  some- 
times think  that  I  have  a  peculiar  enjoyment  of  a 
fine  atmosphere.  It  is  to  me  a  spiritual  pleasure , 
rather  than  physical,  and  seems  to  me  not  un- 
worthy our  future  existence."  And  he,  too, 
could  say,  '*  I  love  not  man  the  less  "  for  these 
interviews  with  nature.  *'  If  I  have  gone  to 
solitudes,"  he  somewhere  says,  indeed,  "  it  was 
not  to  sigh  among  shades,  but  to  use  my  little 
power  as  well  as  I  could.  To  me  the  country  is 
the  best  article  in  the  materia  medical  And 
again  he  says :  "  I  have  never  found  that  my 
lonely  way  of  life  has  alienated  me  from  my 
race.     On  the  contrary,  I  think  that  to  me  it 


232  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

has  been   the  spring   or   nutriment   of  philan- 
thropy." 

Channing's  Individualism. — Independently,  how- 
ever, of  his  feeling  the  necessity  of  solitude 
and  nature  for  their  sanitary  influences  and 
for  studies  which  required  intense  and  concen- 
trated meditation,  Channing,  no  doubt,  would 
have  adopted  his  secluded  mode  of  life,  his 
individualism,  as  it  is  sometimes  disparagingly 
designated,  on  prmcipley  that  is,  because  he  felt 
that  for  the  very  reason  of  being  but  a  part  of 
a  great  human  and  divine  whole,  every  man 
should  strive  to  make  himself  2,  perfect  part;  in 
other  words,  to  perfect  himself  in  the  way  that 
his  knowledge  of  his  peculiar  aptitudes  and  abil- 
ities taught  him  would  be  for  him  the  best. 
In  the  case  of  a  Channing,  individualism  meant 
not  indifference,  but  independence.  And  not 
inappropriate  to  his  monument  would  be  the 
words  Robert  Burns  wrote  to  be  inscribed  on 
an  altar  to  Independence :  — 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  C MANNING,  233 

"  Thou  of  an  independent  mind, 
"With  soul  resolved,  with  soul  resigned; 
Prepared  power's  proudest  frown  to  brave, 
Who  wilt  not  be  —  nor  have  —  aslave  ; 
Virtue  alone  who  dost  revere ; 
Thine  own  reproach  alone  dost  fear;  — 
Approach  this  shrine  and  worship  here." 

His  Natural  Religion.  —  Channing  was  un- 
doubtedly and  emphatically,  in  a  certain  sense, 
the  disciple  and  the  earnest  advocate  of  a  Nat- 
ural Religion.  It  was  part  of  his  evening  wor- 
ship to  stand  at  his  window  and  watch  the 
sunset  sky  over  the  Brighton  hills.  Not  that 
he  worshipped  Nature  in  the  pagan  or  pan- 
theistic sense,  but  that  he  loved  to  join  with 
Nature  in  the  worship  she  silently  pays  to  the 
Maker  and  Father  of  all  things.  Rather  let  us 
say,  he  saw,  in  the  tender  and  majestic  proces- 
sion of  Nature's  shows,  signallings  and  saluta- 
tions from  the  great  Unseen  hidden  behind 
them,  and  with  Him  throuerh  faith  held  sweet 
inward  communion.  To  him  the  song  of  the 
bird,  the  music  of  the  wind  in  the  branches, 
"the  breezy  call   of  incense-breathing  morn," 


234  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

all  were  voices  of  the  Spirit  talking  with  the 
spirit  in  man.  The  streaming  of  the  northern 
lights  was  to  him  a  lovely  apparition,  and  the 
surf-drum  on  the  seashore  and  the  leap  of  the 
maned  billows  woke  in  him  a  child's  delight 
and  awe.  The  freedom  and  familiarity  which 
he  rarely,  if  ever,  manifested  with  human  beings, 
he  indulged  with  these  unconscious  creatures  of 
God.  With  them  the  bounds  of  his  natural 
reserve  gave  way;  and  this  rapture  in  the 
companionship  of  the  creation  and  the  Creator 
grew  with  him  to  the  last.  As  Theodore  Parker 
so  beautifully  says :  "  He  found  God  every- 
where, not  only  in  the  church,  but  wherever  his 
foot  trod ;  in  the  sounds  of  ocean,  where  God 
holds  in  the  waters  with  a  leash  of  sand ;  in 
the  bloom  of  the  crocus  beside  his  doorstep 
in  winter;  in  the  ribs  and  veins  of  a  leaf;  in 
the  sounds  of  nature,  so  full  of  poetry,  —  the 
grass,  the  leaves,  the  drowsy  beetle,  the  con- 
tented kine;  in  the  summer  wind,  that  came 
to  the  window  at  nightfall  and  played  in  the 
ringlets  of  his  children's  hair ;  in  the  Hght  that 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  235 

.  mantles  o'er  the  western  sky,  as  the  sun  goes 
down;  in  the  fires  that  shine  there,  beautiful 
creatures,  all  night  long ;  in  the  star  that  antici- 
pates the  day,  which  looked  gently  through  his 
window,  consoling  him  for  the  loss  of  sleep. 
There  was  no  *  trail  of  the  serpent '  over  all 
this.  Nature,  too,  was  to  him  a  rehgion,  pure 
and   undefiled." 

Charge  of  Sentimentalism.  —  Channing  has 
been  often  spoken  of  disparagingly  as  a  senti- 
mentalist and  an  optimist,  as  one  who  wilfully 
or  in  innocent  ignorance  looked  only  on  the 
pleasant  side  of  life  and  human  nature  and  the 
Divine  character,  —  as  one  who  in  his  light 
barque  kept  near  shore  and  never  ventured  into 
the  deep  waters.  "  He  had  never,"  says  one  of 
his  latest  critics,  "  experienced  in  himself  any 
flagrant  outbreaking  of  sin ;  he  had  never  wres- 
tled in  mortal  agony  with  any  sensual  propen- 
sity." Well,  had  Jesus  himself?  But  did  he 
not  suffer  with  as  well  as  for  sinners?  And 
how  shall  we  say,  then,  that  any  being  cannot 


236  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING, 

sorrow  for  sin  without  having  experienced  the 
agony  of  remorse?  Can  any  one  have  read 
Channing's  sermon  on  the  Evil  of  Sin,  who  calls 
him  superficial  in  his  dealing  with  human  life? 
The  deep  waters  of  thought  are  precisely  those 
on  which  Channing  did  stretch  his  sail,  in  the 
assured  confidence  that  God's  infinite  and  pater- 
nal providence  extended  everywhere,  and  that 
no  error  of  mind  or  of  will  could  carry  a  child 
of  his  beyond  the  reach  of  his  love,  his  pity, 
or  his  care.  And  in  all  conceivable  cases  he 
felt  sure  that  the  Father's  chastisements  would 
have  a  corrective  design.  If  this  was  optimism, 
it  was  the  optimism  of  Paul. 

The  German  poet  Riickert  has  beautifully 
expressed  the  same  thought  in  his  "  Strung 
Pearls  "  as  rendered  by  Dr.  Frothingham :  — 

"  The  father  feels  the  blow,  when  he  corrects  his  son ; 
But  when  thy  heart  is  loose,  rigor 's  a  kindness  done. 

From  the  sun's  searching  power  can  vagrant  planets  rove  ? 
How  then  can  wandering  man  fall  wholly  from  God's  love  ? " 

Channing  was  a  Self-made  Man.  —  This  does 
not  mean  that  he  was  not  acted  upon  by  out- 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  237 

ward  influences.  In  that  sense  no  man  ever 
was  or  could  be  self-made.  The  meaning  is, 
that  in  his  case  the  reaction  from  within  met 
and  equalled  the  action  from  without.  The 
native  power  and  propension  of  the  soul  guided 
the  stream  of  influence  coming  in  upon  it  to 
congenial  issues.  Herein  lay  the  originality  of 
the  man,  —  not  in  utter  independence  of  foreign 
supplies,  but  in  the  conversion  of  them  to  uses 
of  his  own,  —  the  only  originality  possible  to 
man  in  this  world. 

Channing's  Use  of  the  Word  "  I."  —  Much  ac- 
count has  been  made  of  what  is  called  egotism 
in  Channing.  But  how  superficially  and  with 
what  want  of  discrimination  this  charge  is  often 
made  against  such  men !  The  first  person  sin- 
gular may  express  far  more  modesty  than  the 
first  person  plural.  Nothing  is  more  arrogantly 
egotistic,  often,  than  the  critic's  *'  we ;  "  nothing 
more  unassuming  than  the  *'  I  "  of  the  truth- 
seeking  and  truth-speaking  man.  Channing's 
so-called  egotism  was  simply  individuality   and 


238  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

independence.  He  had  caught  his  egotism  from 
communion  with  Jesus,  or  rather  from  the  spirit 
that  dwelt  in  them  both.  When  he  writes  in  the 
preface  to  his  first  pubhshed  volume,  ''  The  times 
demanded  that  a  voice  of  strength  and  courage 
should  be  lifted  up,  and  I  rejoice  that  I  was 
found  among  those  by  whom  it  was  uttered  and 
sent  far  and  wide,"  it  was  in  no  spirit  of  boast- 
ing that  he  said  this ;  he  was  thinking  simply  of 
the  strength  of  faith  and  truth,  and  rejoicing 
before  God  that  grace  had  been  given  him  to 
be  one  of  the  instruments  of  clearing  away  the 
mist  of  sophistry  from  the  eyes  of  men. 

One  reason,  too,  of  Channing's  frequent  use 
of  "  I,"  undoubtedly,  was  his  wishing  to  have  it 
fully  understood  that  in  his  expression  of  opinion 
he  spoke  for  himself  only  and  not  for  any  party. 

Was  Channing  a  Great  Man?  —  A  great  deal  is 
always  vaguely  said  upon  a  question  like  this. 
Great  in  what  faculty,  what  quality?  one  might 
rejoin.  Great  in  degree  or  in  kind?  one  might 
again  ask,  if  the  question  refers  to  greatness  in 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  239 

general.  And  again,  is  the  word  "  greatness  " 
used  here  in  a  positive  or  only  a  comparative 
sense?  In  a  letter  to  Lucy  Aikin,  near  the  cen- 
tenary of  Washington's  birth,  Channing  himself 
writes:  ''Washington  is  the  most  remarkable 
man  of  modern  times;  not  that  he  surpassed 
all  in  ability,  for  it  is  a  question  among  us  yet 
whether  he  can  be  called  great  in  regard  to 
intellect."  It  is  curious  to  reflect  that  a  similar 
question  may  arise  in  some  minds  in  regard  to 
Channing  himself  at  this  hundredth  anniversary 
of  his  birth.  It  has  been  said  that  he  was  not 
great,  but  good.  Shall  we  content  ourselves 
with  saying,  then,  that  he  was  greatly  good? 
We  will  rather  say  that  his  was  the  best  kind 
of  greatness.     If,  indeed,  a  man  may  be 

*'  The  greatest,  wisest,  meanest  of  mankind," 

the  kind  of  greatness  there  implied  we  should 
not  care  to  claim  for  Channing,  nor  the  wisdom 
either.  But  if  one  of  the  grandest  kinds  of 
greatness  is  to  be  growing  freer  and  broader, 
loftier  and   more   ardent    in  aspiration,   as  one 


240  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

grows  in  years,  more  and  more  like  a  child  in 
the  presence  of  God  and  the  prospect  of  eter- 
nity, then  we  confidently  pronounce  Channing 
a  great  man. 

If  greatness  means  completeness,  so  far,  per- 
haps, we  may  acknowledge  Channing's  limita- 
tions. His  biographer  intimates  that  he  may 
have  been  "  kept  from  the  highest  [rather  the 
broadest]  goodness  by  his  love  of  rectitude;  " 
but  with  great  diffidence  would  we  venture  such 
criticism,  not  knowing  that  what  he  lost  in  one 
direction  he  may  not  have  gained  in  another. 

Often,  indeed,  would  he  himself  tell  us,  in  his 
last  years,  that  if  he  had  his  life  to  live  over 
again,  he  would  mix  more  with  men,  would 
mingle  more  in  the  stir  of  busy  and  social  hfe. 
But  we  say  now,  it  is  best  as  it  was. 

Those  who  deny  or  disparage  Dr.  Channing's 
greatness  sometimes  allege  his  want  of  that  hu- 
mor which  is  an  essential  element  of  a  large 
and  vigorous  manhood.  Whether  on  the  whole, 
with  more  health  and  humor,  he  would  have 
given  the  world  an  example  of  so  large,  lofty, 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING,  24 1 

and  profound  a  humanity,  may  well  be  doubted. 
Better  is  it  that  we  should  be  content  and  grate- 
ful for  what  he  was.  Certain  it  is  that  he  pre- 
sents a  wonderful  example  of  a  man  who,  in 
spite  of  that  want  of  health  which  almost  per- 
force keeps  the  humorous  element  in  abeyance, 
maintained  a  serene,  cheerful,  and  happy  tem- 
per, that,  according  to  the  testimony  of  those 
nearest  him,  grew  more  and  more  serene  and 
sunny  as  life  waned.  His  son  says :  "  His  last 
years  were  more  than  peaceful.  They  were 
irradiated  by  a  calm,  deep  joy,  which  it  is  beau- 
tiful to  remember.  His  mind  was  very  active, 
and  he  worked  to  the  extent  of  his  strength. 
Yet  in  work  and  in  enforced  rest  alike,  was  this 
happiness  conspicuous,  which  far  exceeded  sim- 
ple content.  He  was  one  of  the  happiest  per- 
sons, if  not  the  happiest,  I  ever  knew."  His  son 
also  says,  speaking  of  his  father's  abstinence, 
as  being  far  from  asceticism,  that  "sensation 
was  the  avenue  to  him  always  of  the  spir- 
itual correspondences  of  nature.  He  enjoyed 
vividly  the  harmonies  of  color,  sound,  form, 
16 


242  WILLIAM  ELIERY  CHANNING. 

and  all  the  beauties  of  nature ;  yet  they  always 
carried  to  him  their  inmost  spiritual  meaning." 

So  far  as  health  of  body  is  necessary  to  make 
a  whole  man,  Channing,  we  may  admit,  was  im- 
perfect. "  However,"  in  one  of  his  letters  he 
modestly  says,  ''  it  is  a  comfort  to  know,  that 
where  there  is  a  fervent  heart  and  a  strong  pur- 
pose, much  may  be  done  with  a  weak  body." 
And  marvellous,  indeed,  it  is  that  one  who,  as 
his  nephew  asserts,  never  knew  a  day  of  free- 
dom from  pain,  weariness,  or  infirmity,  from  the 
beginning  of  his  ministry,  should  have  been 
able  to  enjoy  and  to  accomplish  so  much,  to 
work  with  so  much  serenity  and  so  much  suc- 
cess, and  to  leave  behind  him  such  a  rich  be- 
quest of  calm,  profound,  ennobhng  thoughts. 

Was  Channing  a  Philosopher  ?  —  If  to  be  a 
philosopher  means  to  be  a  great  metaphysical 
system-builder,  then  we  may  readily  grant  that 
he  was  not  eminently  such.  But  if  we  take  the 
original  sense  of  the  term  philosophy,  namely, 
love  of  wisdom,  then  surely  Channing  was  a 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  243 

philosopher  indeed,  for,  as  Coleridge  said  of 
him,  he  had  "  the  love  of  wisdom  and  the  wis- 
dom of  love."  As  a  man  of  learning  he  does 
not  belong  to  the  first  rank,  but  in  the  school 
of  true  wisdom,  in  this  philosophy  Channing 
was  certainly  a  master.  Whether  he  had  a 
philosophy  or  not  (and  perhaps,  if  the  critic 
cannot  find  one  in  him  which  he  can  define,  it 
is  his  defect,  not  Channing's),  he  certainly 
had  philosophy  in  the  best  sense,  even  in  that 
of  St.  Augustine,  who  somewhere  says,  '*  If  God 
is  wisdom,  then  the  lover  of  God  is  the  true 
philosopher." 

Channing's  Unfinished  Work  on  Man.  —  During 
the  last  year  of  his  life  Channing  was  busy  with 
gathering  up  and  arranging  his  thoughts  for  a 
great  work  oti  the  nature  and  destiny  of  man. 
He  lived  to  finish  only  five  chapters,  which  are 
taken  up  with  a  philosophy  of  sensation,  con- 
ception, consciousness,  and  memory.  These 
chapters  were  carefully  written  out,  and  will 
soon   be   published.     They  will   exhibit   Chan- 


244  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

ning  in  a  new  light,  as  presenting,  in  scientific 
statement,  moral  and  spiritual  truths  and  princi- 
ples, upon  which  all  his  preaching  and  his  phil- 
anthropic writings  had  been  based.  He  is  still 
preaching,  with  a  calm,  philosophic  clearness, 
and  with  a  lucid  simplicity  that  makes  his 
thought  and  argument  intelligible  to  common- 
sense,  and  unencumbered  by  the  technicalities 
of  the  schools.  Pre-eminent  and  remarkable 
throughout  the  fragment  is  the  idealism,  the 
spirituality  of  the  doctrine.  The  body  is  the 
occasion,  not  the  cause,  of  sensation.  *'  It  is 
I  (the  soul)  that  see  and  hear."  Because  an 
idea — of  space,  for  instance  —  follows  a  sensa- 
tion, it  is  not  therefore  the  effect  of  it.  Yet  the 
power  comes  from  God.  We  must  assume  his 
immediate  and  ever-present  energy.  The  mil- 
ler lifts  the  sluice,  and  the  wheels  begin  to 
move ;  the  stream  that  moves  them  is  the  flow 
of  Divine  power. 

The  idea  of  power  —  of  causation,  for  in- 
stance—  according  to  Channing  is  of  spiritual 
origin.     All  the  ideas,  in  short,  which  have  been 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  245 

SO  often  derived  from  sensation,  **have  their 
origin  in  the  mind.  The  source  is  within.  The 
outward  creation  is  revealed  to  us  by  our  own 
souls." 

It  is  interesting  to  meet  in  these  pages  a  per- 
sonal reference  in  the  illustration  of  the  writ- 
er's favorite  theory  of  the  spiritual  and  creative 
character  of  sensation.  "  May  I  say  that  now, 
when  the  creation  has  become  a  familiar  sight, 
and  my  eye  has  grown  dim,  the  earth  and  the 
heavens  expand  before  me  into  new  greatness. 
It  is  the  soul  which  aggrandizes  nature." 

The  spiritual  view  here  presented  of  the  na- 
ture of  sensation  and  of  the  ideas  to  which  it 
gives  occasion  strikingly  coincides  with  a  train 
of  thought  in  Max  Miiller's  last  lectures  on  the 
origin  and  growth  of  the  religious  idea  in  man. 
For  instance,  he  says :  "  We  distinguish  be- 
tween sense  and  reason,  though  even  these  two 
are,  in  the  highest  sense,  different  functions 
only  of  the  same  conscious  self."  Again,  refer- 
ring to  the  transcendental  idea  of  infinity,  he 
says :  "  Our  very  idea  of  a  limit  implies  the  idea 


246  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

of  a  beyond,  and  thus  forces  the  idea  of  the  infi- 
nite upon  us,  whether  we  Hke  it  or  not." 

In  the  ideas  of  this  philosophic  bequest  of 
Channing's,  there  may  be  no  novelty  now 
(Lavollaye  remarks  "  the  naivete  of  some  of  his 
doctrines,  which  he  thinks  new,  and  which  could 
not  pass  for  discoveries  except  in  America"), 
but  in  the  spirit  and  style  of  the  presentation 
there  is  something  fresh,  individual,  and  singu- 
larly attractive.  How  refreshing  it  is,  too,  what 
a  presentiment  of  immortality  it  gives  us,  to  find 
one  who  with  such  a  fervent  spirit  in  such  a  frail 
frame  has  devoted  the  years  of  his  manhood  to 
the  labors  of  the  pulpit  and  the  great  moral, 
social,  and  political  questions  and  crises  of  the 
hour,  sitting  down  in  his  last  days  in  the  chair  of 
science,  and  with  youthful  ardor  addressing  him- 
self to  the  examination,  in  the  light  of  reason 
and  philosophy,  of  the  questions,  what  man  is 
made  of,  and  what  he  is  made  for;  to  the  task 
of  resuming  and  reinforcing  by  scientific  induc- 
tions, the  great  doctrine  of  the  dignity  and  the 
divinity  of  our  origin,  nature,  and  destiny ! 


Wi' 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  247 

In  Christ's  Church,  Oxford,  there  is  a  memo- 
rial tablet  to  Bishop  Berkeley,  bearing  an  in- 
scription which  might  with  equal  felicity  be 
transferred  to  Channing :  — 

"  Si  Christianas  fueris, 
Si  amans  patriae, 
Utroque  nomine  gloriari  potes 
Berkleium  vixisse." 

"If  thou  art  a  Christian ; 
If  a  lover  of  thy  country  ; 
Under  both  names  thou  canst  glory 
That  Channing  has  lived." 

And  here  this  most  inadequate  tribute  to  the 
memory  of  our  spiritual  friend  and  father  shall 
close.  And  how  can  we  close  more  fitly  than 
in  the  words  he  himself  wrote  after  the  death 
of  his  friends  Follen  and  Tuckerman :  '^  But  we 
will  not  say  we  have  lost  such  friends.  They 
live  within  us  in  sweet  and  tender  remem- 
brances. They  live  around  us  in  the  fruits  of 
th-eir  holy  labors.  They  live  above  us,  and  call 
us,  in  the  tones  of  a  friendship  which  heaven 
has  refined,  to  strengthen  our  union  with  them 
by  sharing  their  progress  in  truth  and  virtue." 


248  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING, 


Lines  read  in  the  U7titarian  Church  at  Newport  on  the  Ninety- 
ninth  Anniversary  of  Channing^s  Birth. 

WILLIAM    ELLERY    CHANNING. 

Born  in  Newport,  April  7,  1780. 

A  century's  close  is  drawing  nigh, 
The  hundredth  year  has  now  begun, 

Since,  in  the  softening  April  sky. 
The  lustre  of  the  vernal  sun, 

Sending  his  radiant  beams  abroad, 

To  bid  a  new  creation  rise, 
Fell,  like  the  loving  look  of  God, 

Upon  a  new-born  infant's  eyes. 

We  stand  amid  the  scenes  to-day, 

Where  Channing's  wondering  childhood  saw 

The  signs  of  God's  mysterious  way. 
And  learned  to  love  his  holy  law. 

Here  first  his  heart  drank  in  the  light 

Of  God's  benign  and  tender  face. 
And  glowed  with  rapture  at  the  sight 

Of  Nature's  loveliness  and  grace. 

Here  first  he  breathed  the  ocean  air. 

The  headland  cliff  exultant  trod, 
And  felt  a  spirit  everywhere, 

And  saw  the  step  of  Nature's  God. 

And  as  he  trod  the  sounding  shore, 
And  gazed  on  ocean's  billowy  roll, 

The  music  of  that  deep-toned  roar 

With  awe  and  transport  thrilled  his  soul. 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING.  249 

His  bosom,  heaving  with  the  sea, 

Exulted  in  the  glorious  din ; 
The  elemental  energy 

Woke  answering  energy  within. 

In  many  a  lone  and  holy  hour 

Of  rapturous  self-communion  there, 
He  felt  within  the  peace  and  power 

That  issue  from  the  fount  of  prayer. 

And  in  the  broad  blue  sky  above, 

In  the  large  look  of  Nature,  then, 
He  felt  the  greatness  of  God's  love 

Rebuke  the  narrow  creeds  of  men. 

Communing  there  with  Nature's  word, 

Beside  the  vast  and  solemn  sea, 
With  awe  profound  his  spirit  heard 

The  holy  hymn  of  Liberty, 

That  mighty  ocean  still  rolls  on, 

Still  sounds  that  deep,  mysterious  roar ; 

But  he  long  since  from  earth  has  gone, 
He  walks  another  brighter  shore. 

He  breathes  the  air  of  purer  skies ; 

A  generation  now  has  passed 
Since  peacefully  his  failing  eyes 

On  autumn's  glory  looked  their  last. 

His  voice  has  gone  o'er  all  the  earth. 

While  —  O  strange  ways  of  earthly  fame  I  — 

Here,  in  the  place  that  gave  him  birth, 
Are  those  who  never  heard  his  name. 


250  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

Men  come  from  foreign  lands  to  seek 
The  shrines  that  grace  this  ancient  town ; 

With  reverent  love  his  name  they  speak,  * 

Attesting  his  world-wide  renown. 

They  wander  on  from  street  to  street, 

And  marvel,  as  they  gaze  around, 
No  monumental  stone  to  meet,  — 

No  hill-top  with  his  image  crowned. 

And,  with  full  heart,  we  too  reply : 

"  Ask  ye  a  monument  ?     Look  round  I  "  ^ 

Here,  while  we  name  him,  he  is  nigh, 
He  makes  this  hill  a  holy  ground. 

These  walls  his  kindling  voice  have  heard,  — 
Once,  in  the  bloom  and  fire  of  youth, 

And  when,  in  later  years,  his  word 
Wore  the  calm  majesty  of  truth. 

I  see  him  now,  —  his  pale  cheek  seems 
Transparent  to  the  soul's  warm  light, 

And  the  clear  eye,  dilating,  beams 
As  if  his  faith  were  turned  to  sight. 

,  And  many  a  soul  that  felt  the  thrill 

That  look  through  heart  and  conscience  sent 
Burns  with  the  flame  it  kindled  still. 
And  is  his  living  monument. 

But  chiefly  on  the  glowing  page 

His  mind  a  monument  hath  wrought. 

That  shall  endure  from  age  to  age. 
Lit  with  the  sunny  beam  of  thought. 

*  An  allusion  to  the  epitaph  on  Sir  Christopher  Wren  in  St.  Paul's  Church, 
London  :  "  Si  monumentum  requiris,  circumspice  !  " 


WILLIAM  ELLERY  C MANNING.  2$  I 

There,  with  immortal  fervor  warm, 

Shall  rise  an  image  of  the  man. 
That  shall  express  the  spirit's  form 

As  neither  stone  nor  canvas  can. 

Though  the  frail  form,  in  years  long  gone, 

Faded  and  fled  from  mortal  sight, 
And  darkness  veiled  the  eyes  that  shone 

Illumined  by  the  soul's  pure  light, 

That  light  still  lives,  that  life  breathes  power, 

The  age  still  feels  its  holy  thrill ; 
That  voice  is  heard  in  trial's  hour. 

To  nerve  the  weak  and  wavering  will. 

While  the  great  truths  and  precepts,  taught 

By  Jesus,  human  souls  engage ; 
While  the  deep  problems  of  man's  thought 

Still  stir  and  agitate  the  age,  — 

No  time  shall  come,  when  Channing's  name 
Shall  grow  less  bright  on  Freedom's  scroll. 

Or  cease  to  light  the  holy  flame 
Of  faith  and  virtue  in  the  soul. 

And  surely  here,  where  field  and  shore 

Seem  waiting  still  his  step  to  hear. 
And,  musing  where  the  breakers  roar, 

We  feel  his  spirit  breathing  near, — 

Here,  where  the  broad  and  chainless  sea. 

The  blue  sky  bending  from  above, 
Confirm  the  gospel,  large  and  free. 

He  preached,  of  God's  impartial  love,  — 


252  WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. 

Shall  pious  hands,  in  coming  days, 
And  grateful  hearts  from  far  and  near, 

Some  not  unfit  memorial  raise, 
To  thoughtful  souls  for  ever  dear  j 

Where  children's  children,  year  by  year, 
The  voice  of  praise  and  prayer  shall  swell, 

And  feel  the  Father's  presence  near. 
In  whom  the  saints  for  ever  dwell. 

C.  T. 


INDEX. 


Abbot,  J.  E.,  99. 

Abolitionists,  letter  to,  146. 

Adams,  President  John,  address  to,  by  the  Harvard  students,  (&. 

Allston,  28 ;  on  Channing,  47,  58. 

Anti-Calvinism,  108. 

Antislavery  conflict,  145. 

Arianism  of  Channing,  107. 

Aurelius,  Marcus,  his  tribute  to  his  ancestors,  43. 

Autobiography,  Channing's  and  Wordsworth's,  18. 

Bacon's  saying,  86. 

Bartol  on  Channing,  230. 

Beach  at  Newport,  27. 

Bellows,  Dr.,  on  Channing's  piety,  160. 

Berkeley,  28 ;  his  epitaph,  247. 

Berry  Street  Vestry,  122;  Conference,  123. 

Biography,  its  difficulties,  13. 

Blanco  White,  letters  to,  155,  156;  his  death,  161. 

Bonaparte,  97,  118,  119. 

Bryant  and  Channing,  parallels  between,  79,  loi,  147,  173. 

Callender,  the  meeting-house  in  which  he  gave  his  Century 

Lecture,  33. 
Cambridge  in  1794,  60. 
Catholicity  of  Channing,  177. 
Centenary  reflections,  13. 
Chadwick's  tribute,  175. 


254  INDEX. 

Chalmers,  78. 

Chaloner,  Mary,  Channing's  paternal  grandmother,  41. 

Channing,  Rev.  George,  *'  Early  Recollections,"  88. 

Channing,  Henry,  58. 

Channing,  W.  E.,  his  birth,  26;  the  homestead,  34;  the  period 
of  his  birth,  ■};] ;  his  parentage  and  ancestry,  41 ;  his  father 
and  mother,  42;  as  a  child,  44 ;  his  boyhood,  45 ;  the  "  Little 
Preacher,"  47 ;  and  "  Peacemaker,"  48 ;  his  three  schools, 
48 ;  early  spiritual  influences,  50 ;  the  future  man  and  min- 
ister, 54 ;  schooling  and  fitting  for  college,  57  ;  death  of  his 
father,  58 ;  enters  Harvard,  60 ;  his  classmates,  61 ;  his 
college  mates,  63 ;  favorite  studies,  65 ;  influence  of  Hutch- 
eson,  66 ;  interest  in  politics,  67 ;  his  Commencement 
oration,  68 ;  choice  of  profession,  69 ;  tutor  at  Richmond, 
70 ;  results  of  his  residence  there,  72  ;  struggle  and  triumph, 
74;  new  birth,  76;  theological  attitude,  77;  return  home, 
80 ;  tribute  to  the  beach  at  Newport,  81 ;  preaches  for 
Hopkins,  83 ;  returns  to  Cambridge,  85 ;  church  member, 
86 ;  sermon  at  Medford,  87  ;  called  to  Federal  Street,  91  \ 
ordained,  93 ;  first  months  of  his  ministry,  94 ;  in  a  lively 
house,  98;  as  preacher  and  pastor,  loi ;  early  sermons, 
104;  opening  of  the  Unitarian  controversy,  iii;  writes  for 
the  "  Christian  Disciple,"  112;  corresponds  with  Dr.  Worces- 
ter, 114;  patriotic  sermons,  118;  pronounced  Unitarian- 
ism,  121;  Dudleian  Lecture,  123;  his  marriage,  124;  his 
children,  124,  125;  devotion  to  his  mother,  125;  her  death, 
126;  journey  through  New  England,  127;  Oakland,  127  ; 
visit  to  Europe,  128;  news  of  the  death  of  a  child,  130;  in 
his  pulpit  again,  131 ;  receives  a  colleague,  131 ;  a  Sunday  in 
Federal  Street,  132;  authorship,  134;  liberal  preachers  of 
that  day,  134 ;  "  Examiner  "  articles,  136 ;  great  sermons,  137  ; 
journey  to  West  Indies,  139;  antislavery  conflict,  141  ;  book 
on  slavery,  145;  Lenox  address,  148;  philanthropic  addresses, 
149;  sermons  of  last  decade,  150;  letters  of  last  decade, 
151  ;  his  Natural  Religion,  162  ;  Newport  Church,  163  ;  dedi- 
cation, 166;  charge,  167;  sermons  at  Newport,  168,  171; 
Oakland,   178;    closing  days,   181;     Sunday   talks    to   the 


INDEX.  255 

farmers,  183;  last  journeyings,  184;  last  of  earth,  first  of 
heaven,  185;  his  style,  214;  care  in  composition,  222 ;  his 
unfinished  work  on  Man,  243. 

Channing,  William,  epitaph  on  him,  59, 

Channing,  W.  H.,  his  memoir  of  his  micle,  9, 

Chapman,  Mrs.,  her  aspersions,  141. 

Cheverus,  Archbishop,  193. 

Child,  Mrs.,  her  tribute,  147. 

"Christian  Disciple,"  II2. 

Codman,  John,  102. 

Coleridge,  129. 

Controversial  bullying,  114. 

Coquerel,  209. 

Corner-stone  of  Dr.  Hopkins's  church,  166. 

Creeds,  211. 

Dedication  sermon  at  Newport,  166. 

Dehon,  Theodore,  63. 

Dewey,  at  Federal  Street,  128,  131 ;  on  Channing,  132,  173. 

Divinity  Hall,  dedication  of,  138. 

Duchess  Quamino,  her  epitaph,  56. 

Dudleian  Lecture,  123. 

Edwards,  his  conversion,  78;  pulpit  manner,  172. 

Egotism  (alleged)  of  Channing,  237. 

Ellery  "the  Signer,"  his  house,  30;  grandfather  of  Channing, 

41 ;    letter  about  his  grandson,  91 ;    correspondence  with 

him,  92. 
Episcopal  tribute,  190. 
European  fame  of  Channing,  193, 

Fast  Day  sermon  in  1810,  119. 

Federal  Street  Church,  92. 

Fenelon,  Channing's  paper  on,  136;  and  Channing,  2CO. 

Ferguson's  "  Civil  Society,"  65. 

First  sermon  of  Channing  (in  MS.),  89. 

Fisher,  Professor,  82,  209. 


256  INDEX. 

Foresti,  Signer,  his  idea  of  Channing,  169. 

Foster,  James,  iii. 

France,  its  influence  on  Channing's  contemporaries,  67. 

Franklin,  201. 

Freeman,  Dr.,  at  King's  Chapel  on  the  "solemn  festival,"  120; 

charge,  135. 
French  characterizations  of  Channing,  45,  46;   admiration  of 

him,  195. 
Furness,  his  Life  of  Channing,  109,  117. 

Gannett,  Ezra  Stiles,  colleague  to  Channing,  131 ;  his 
criticisms  on  Channing,  155;  his  preaching  in  the  old 
Hopkins  pulpit,  167  ;  his  tribute  to  nature,  231. 

Garrison,  139. 

Greatness,  238. 

Greene,  Albert  G.,  his  Hymn  on  Channing,  174. 

Hall,  E.  B.,  on  Channing's  earthly  immortality,  24 ;   on  his 

reading  of  hymns,  94;  sermon  on  the  dedication  evening  at 

Newport,  166. 
Happiness,  Channing's  portrait  of,  99. 
Harvard  College  in  1784-88,  60. 
Hopkins,   Dr.,  his  parsonage,  35;    at  his  desk,  35;   his  old 

meeting-house,  36 ;  influence  on  Channing,  40,  50,  55 ;  verses 

on  the  two  men,  84. 
Humanitarianism  of  Channing,  107. 
Hutcheson's  "  Moral  Philosophy,"  66. 

Immortality,  Channing's  earthly,  21. 
Independence,  210. 
Individualism,  232. 

Jackson,  Dr.  James,  63. 

Jean  Paul  on  the  literary  profession,  69. 

Kendall,  Dr.,  63. 

Knight's  Encyclopaedia,  a  prediction  in,  221. 


INDEX.  257 

Laboulaye,  196. 

Last  words,  186. 

Lavollaie,  72,  73, 197.  ' 

Lenox,  address  at,  148. 

Lessons  from  Channing's  Life,  21. 

Liberty  tree  at  Newport,  30. 

Long  Lane,  92. 

Lucy  Ellery  C banning,  her  character  and  likeness,  42,  43. 

Malbone,  57 ;  his  sketch  of  young  Channing,  69. 

May,  Samuel  J.,  his  reproof  of  Channing's  slowness,  146. 

Methodist  eulogium,  191. 

Milton's  prose,  Channing  on,  216. 

More,  Henry,  182. 

Morse's  bust  of  Channing,  175. 

Mysticism,  no. 

New  birth,  ']^. 

Newport,  forty  years  ago,  29 ;  after  the  Revolution,  38 ;  Unita- 
rian Church  founded  there,  163. 
Newport  Gardner,  56. 
Ninety-ninth  anniversary  of  Channing's  birth,  poem  on,  248. 

Oakland,  life  at,  178. 

"  PANOPLIST,"  III. 

Parker,  Theodore,  on  Channing's  death,  186;    his  "Humble 

Tribute,"  188. 
Patriotic  efforts,  118. 
Patten,  Dr.,  83. 

Peace  Society,  the  Massachusetts,  120. 
Philosophy  of  Channing,  242. 
Preacher,  the,  Channing's  ideal  of,  102. 
Pre-existence  of  Jesus,  115. 

Quaker's  Hill,  34. 

17 


258  INDEX. 

Rationalism  of  Channing,  reverent,  207. 

Redwood  Library,  centenary  poem,  28;  Channing's  study,  83. 

Regent  at  Cambridge,  85. 

Remusat,  193. 

Renan,  205. 

Revolution,  the  American,  its  effect  on  Newport,  38. 

Richmond,  70. 

Robertson,  F.  W.,  194. 

Rogers,  Master,  57. 

Sectarianism,  Channing's  dread  of,  164. 

Self-made  men,  236. 

Sententious  passages  from  Channing,  224. 

Sentimentalism,  74,  235. 

Shelley's  words  applied  to  Channing,  24. 

Simmons,  W.  H.,  "The  Last  Latin  Recitation,"  61. 

Slavery,  Newport's  early  relation  to,  39 ;  Channing's  first  sight 

and  impression  of,  71. 
Stevens,  Dr.  Abel,  192. 
Stiles  Meeting-house,  32. 

Stone  Chapel,  Channing's  great  sermon  there,  119. 
Story,  Judge,  61,  64. 
Style,  Channing's,  214. 
Sydney  Smith,  195. 

Thanksgiving  sermon,  Channing's  first,  105 ;  at  the  "  solemn 

festival"  in  1814,  119. 
"  Thebaid  "  of  Channing  at  Richmond,  72. 
Thurston,  Parson,  the  Cooper,  55. 
Ticknor,  George,  at  Channing's  ordination,  94. 
Tuckerman,  Joseph,  61,  64. 

Unitarian  controversy  begins,  iii,  113. 
"  Unitarian  Orthodoxy,"  159. 
Unitarianism,  Channing,  208. 

Virginians,  Channing's  opinion  of,  71. 


INDEX. 


259 


Ward,  Julius,  his  misrepresentations,  158. 
Ware,  William,  on  Channing,  213. 
Washington  Tavern,  Newport,  31. 

Willard,  Sidney,  61  ;  his  "  Memories,"  61 ;  account  of  "  Chris- 
tian Disciple,"  112. 
Worcester,  Dr.,  letters  to,  114. 
Word  of  God,  Channing's  idea  of,  117. 

YouTHFULNESS,  perpetual,  of  Channing,  21. 


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